Smearing the Pope: The Times fudged the facts

NY Post ^ | WILLIAM J. LEVADA

[Scanian]

EDITOR'S NOTE: The follow ing are excerpts from a statement by Cardinal William J. Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

I AM not proud of America's newspaper of record, the New York Times, as a para gon of fairness.

[Monday's] Times presents both a lengthy article by Laurie Goodstein ("Warned About Abuse, Vatican Failed to Defrock Priest") and an accompanying editorial in which the editors call the article a "disturbing report" as a basis for their own charges against the pope. Both the article and the editorial are deficient by any reasonable standards of fairness.

In her lead paragraph, Goodstein relies on what she describes as "newly unearthed files" to point out what the Vatican (i.e. then-Cardinal Ratzinger and his Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) did not do -- "defrock Father Murphy." Breaking news, apparently.