{"id":41,"date":"2010-03-30T11:33:55","date_gmt":"2010-03-30T11:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/popewatch-clergy-defend-benedict.html"},"modified":"2010-03-30T11:33:55","modified_gmt":"2010-03-30T11:33:55","slug":"popewatch-clergy-defend-benedict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/popewatch-clergy-defend-benedict.html","title":{"rendered":"Pope Watch: Clergy, Catholic Press Defend Pope Benedict"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Apologies to Tammy Wynette, but I&#8217;ve had &#8220;Stand By Your Man&#8221; stuck in my head for&nbsp;hours&nbsp;while sifting through the influx of Catholic bishops and commentators defending Pope Benedict&#8217;s response to the global clergy sex abuse scandal (as <a href=\"http:\/\/content.usatoday.com\/communities\/Religion\/post\/2010\/03\/pope-benedict-sex-abuse-survey-ratings-fall\/1?csp=34&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+Religion-TopStories+(News+-+Religion+-+Top+Stories)&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader\">his U.S. approval ratings plummet<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>A few notable examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/u.s._bishops_profoundly_grateful_for_popes_work_in_combating_sexual_abuse\/\">U.S. bishops profoundly grateful for Pope&#8217;s work in combating sexual abuse<\/a>&nbsp;(Catholic News Agency)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com\/2010\/03\/us-bench-we-stand-with-b16.html\">US Bench: &#8220;We Stand With&#8221; B16<\/a>&nbsp;(Whispers in the Loggia)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/catholicanchor.org\/wordpress\/?p=601\">Setting the record straight in the case of abusive Milwaukee priest Father Lawrence Murphy <\/a>(Catholic Anchor)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/ncronline.org\/blogs\/all-things-catholic\/keeping-record-straight-benedict-and-crisis\">Keeping the record straight on Benedict and the crisis <\/a>(National Catholic Reporter)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s appropriate and unsurprising that the Vatican and its supporters would <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/popewatch-palm-sunday-edition.html\">respond defensively to The New York Times and other investigations,<\/a> which have been trying to link pedophile priest cover-ups&nbsp;to the former&nbsp;Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. But circling the wagons may also invite more backlash, with some abuse survivors saying it makes <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/hostednews\/ap\/article\/ALeqM5gD3iONUcktH-05Q8K4ykmcZvMbUAD9EOMU000\">them feel victimized all over again<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">*<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beliefnet\/beliefbeat\">Click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>subscribe to Belief Beat<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong><\/a>and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>follow Belief Beat on Twitter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apologies to Tammy Wynette, but I&#8217;ve had &#8220;Stand By Your Man&#8221; stuck in my head for&nbsp;hours&nbsp;while sifting through the influx of Catholic bishops and commentators defending Pope Benedict&#8217;s response to the global clergy sex abuse scandal (as his U.S. approval ratings plummet). A few notable examples: U.S. bishops profoundly grateful for Pope&#8217;s work in combating&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pope Watch: Clergy, Catholic Press Defend Pope Benedict - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/popewatch-clergy-defend-benedict.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope Watch: Clergy, Catholic Press Defend Pope Benedict - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Apologies to Tammy Wynette, but I&#8217;ve had &#8220;Stand By Your Man&#8221; stuck in my head for&nbsp;hours&nbsp;while sifting through the influx of Catholic bishops and commentators defending Pope Benedict&#8217;s response to the global clergy sex abuse scandal (as his U.S. approval ratings plummet). A few notable examples: U.S. bishops profoundly grateful for Pope&#8217;s work in combating&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/popewatch-clergy-defend-benedict.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-30T11:33:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pope Watch: Clergy, Catholic Press Defend Pope Benedict - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/popewatch-clergy-defend-benedict.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pope Watch: Clergy, Catholic Press Defend Pope Benedict - Belief Beat","og_description":"Apologies to Tammy Wynette, but I&#8217;ve had &#8220;Stand By Your Man&#8221; stuck in my head for&nbsp;hours&nbsp;while sifting through the influx of Catholic bishops and commentators defending Pope Benedict&#8217;s response to the global clergy sex abuse scandal (as his U.S. approval ratings plummet). A few notable examples: U.S. bishops profoundly grateful for Pope&#8217;s work in combating&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/popewatch-clergy-defend-benedict.html","og_site_name":"Belief Beat","article_published_time":"2010-03-30T11:33:55+00:00","author":"Nicole Neroulias","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/popewatch-clergy-defend-benedict.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/popewatch-clergy-defend-benedict.html","name":"Pope Watch: Clergy, Catholic Press Defend Pope Benedict - Belief Beat","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-03-30T11:33:55+00:00","dateModified":"2010-03-30T11:33:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/popewatch-clergy-defend-benedict.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/popewatch-clergy-defend-benedict.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/popewatch-clergy-defend-benedict.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pope Watch: Clergy, Catholic Press Defend Pope Benedict"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/","name":"Belief Beat","description":"BeliefBeat - Nicole Neroulias","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b","name":"Nicole Neroulias","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","caption":"Nicole Neroulias"},"description":"Nicole Neroulias is a correspondent for Religion News Service, a secular news and photo service devoted to unbiased coverage of religion and ethics. A graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously written for The New York Times and other media outlets. She and her family live in Seattle.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/author\/nneroulias"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}