{"id":2634,"date":"2008-11-03T06:56:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-03T06:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/catholic-tv-producer-people-respond-to-truth-not-pablum.html"},"modified":"2008-11-03T06:56:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-03T06:56:00","slug":"catholic-tv-producer-people-respond-to-truth-not-pablum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/catholic-tv-producer-people-respond-to-truth-not-pablum.html","title":{"rendered":"Catholic TV producer: “People respond to truth, not pablum”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once, “Catholic media” meant just your parish bulletin and the diocesan paper. No more. Here’s a story<\/a> that shows how much things have changed (and it happens to be right up my alley), about a growing Catholic television station that exists only online: <\/p>\n

<\/a>Balling his right hand into a fist, producer Michael Voris leans into a TV camera inside a Ferndale studio to slam home his point:<\/p>\n

“Why do young adults stay from mass in droves?” Voris asked while delivering a taped commentary. “What’s missing is bold preaching that challenges young adults. … The beauty and truth of the Catholic faith has been denied this generation by an older generation … of hedonistic, immoral egomaniacs with no moral compass.”<\/p>\n

Strong words, but ones that the producers of a new Catholic TV station — billed as the first one to air solely online — hope will connect with an audience they say is starved for fresh religious programming with an edge. Called Real Catholic TV, the new station is based in Ferndale and aims to reach a global audience with news, features and commentary that pushes a decidedly traditional viewpoint.<\/p>\n

There already are religious media outlets aimed at southeastern Michigan’s 1.5 million Catholics — a couple of radio stations and a TV station produced with the cooperation of the Archdiocese of Detroit — but Real Catholic TV says it will fill a void because of its independence.<\/p>\n

Launched last month, the station comes at a time of intense debate within the Catholic church about how to stem the growing numbers leaving the faith. A major survey by the Pew Forum released earlier this year found that one of every three Americans who were raised Catholic have left the church.<\/p>\n

That has concerned many Catholics, but there are disagreements about how to best stem that loss and attract newcomers to the faith. To some, the problem is that the church may be too rigid on certain issues: contraception, divorce, abortion, male-only priests.<\/p>\n

But Voris — a veteran TV reporter who’s the main producer behind Real Catholic TV — believes the opposite is true. To conservatives like him, the church has been watered down over the past 40 years by liberal reforms that started with Vatican II. And it lacks, he says, dynamic teachers who preach the faith with passion.<\/p>\n

“People respond to the truth, not pablum,” Voris said, banging his pencil on the desk. “And for decades, that’s all young adults have been given.<\/p>\n

“They’ve been fed gallons of innocuous, ethereal, kumbaya, arts-and-craft making, God is a rainbow, let’s-hold-hands spiritually vacuous nonsense. “Don’t believe me? Start counting young adults at mass the next time you’re there.”<\/p>\n

Another point of contention is presentation: compared to the showmanship of some Protestant TV preachers and megachurches — which have soared in popularity in recent years — Catholic services and clerics can come off to some as too dowdy or reserved. In a media-saturated world of video games and YouTube clips, Sunday mass just doesn’t cut it anymore.<\/p>\n

“Why on earth are they going to listen to Father-Bore-You-to-Death prattle on?” Voris said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Take a look at the link<\/a> for more. And you can catch the channel itself right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once, “Catholic media” meant just your parish bulletin and the diocesan paper. No more. Here’s a story that shows how much things have changed (and it happens to be right up my alley), about a growing Catholic television station that exists only online: Balling his right hand into a fist, producer Michael Voris leans into…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,11,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-r-us","category-media","category-my-world"],"yoast_head":"\nCatholic TV producer: "People respond to truth, not pablum" - The Deacon's Bench<\/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\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/catholic-tv-producer-people-respond-to-truth-not-pablum.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Catholic TV producer: "People respond to truth, not pablum" - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Once, “Catholic media” meant just your parish bulletin and the diocesan paper. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}