Posted on 02/15/2004 12:13:11 PM PST by autopsy
Mary Magdalene and power of misinformation
Ancient pope's slander shows how hard it is to fix damaged reputation
ED WILLIAMS
A good reputation is hard to build and easy to tear down.
I've been thinking of this since hearing a friend's remark when Mary Magdalene was mentioned in a conversation at our church.
"Mary Magdalene," he said. "We know about her."
There was an implicit leer in his voice -- Mary, the prostitute who turned to Jesus.
That's the story many of us learned growing up. It isn't true.
The biblical Mary from Magdala, a city in Galilee, first appears in the Gospel of Luke as an apparently wealthy woman whom Jesus cured of possession (he cast seven devils out of her). She then joined him and the Apostles and helped support his ministry.
There's no suggestion that her problem was sin. Her possession was considered an illness.
The next time her name appears is when she and other women witness the crucifixion from the foot of the cross, after the male apostles have fled.
Then on Easter Sunday morning she visits Jesus' tomb and finds it empty. She learns -- from Jesus in one gospel and from angels in three others -- that he is risen. In one gospel she is the first to encounter the resurrected Jesus.
All in all, she seems to be a woman of substance and prominence who was cured by Jesus and then was a devout and important supporter of his ministry.
The problem for her reputation came when early church fathers wrapped her story into those of some other women, including the "sinner" in Luke who bathed Jesus' feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, kissed them and anointed them with ointment.
Pope Gregory the Great put the official stamp of disrepute on her in 591 when he declared in a sermon, "She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary [of Bethany], we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark."
He was wrong but, popes being what they are, his assertion became official church teaching.
Dan Brown, in his best-selling "The Da Vinci Code," portrays the slander of Mary Magdalene as a conspiracy by early church leaders to conceal a story that would change the world. (Brown writes fiction, not history.)
It wasn't until 1969 that the Catholic Church officially separated Luke's sinful woman, Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene, and quietly corrected Pope Gregory's nearly 1,400-year slander.
As my friend's offhand comment indicated, repairing a damaged reputation is no easy thing.
I'm thinking of that as I write this because of some e-mails we've received from readers who are convinced we're covering up a story about John Kerry, front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The Internet is a wonderful source of information, but it is also the world's most powerful spreader of misinformation.
Before the advent of the Internet, journalists would hear rumors that only a few of our readers would be aware of. Now celebrity rumors are available to all.
We don't ignore such rumors. We see if they check out.
If they do, and the information is newsworthy, then we have a story. But anyone who's been in the news business for long can tell you about a desk full of rumors that never panned out.
Not all of them are on the Internet. Television spreads its share of misinformation, particularly in dramatizations of historical events. A recent one was the report that Lyndon Johnson was responsible for the murder of John F. Kennedy, a speculation that the History Channel portrayed far too seriously.
And not long ago there was the CBS docudrama about Ronald Reagan, which put words in his mouth that no one who knew him could imagine him saying.
It happens locally, too. Talk radio abounds with half-truths and fabrications. Other newspapers report stories based on assertions that turn out to be unsupported. When we don't report such stuff, we're suspected of a cover-up.
Unsubstantiated stories are hot. Rumor sells. Maybe the fact that a lot of people are talking about something is sufficient reason for it to be in the Observer.
The power of the Internet is pushing news organizations to examine their standards. After all, gossip mongers are competing with us to be the first to bring you information, and they're willing to tell you things that we're not.
But there's a difference. We do our best to bring you accurate information. I think that's a distinction worth preserving.
I believe Mary Magdalene would, too.
Then again, it is not I who claims what a Pope says, writes, or preaches is trash.
Lets try another one. Harvard Divinity School
Which prejudice do you wish to exercise now?
To date, you have refused to examine a quote of Pope Gregory simply because it was posted on a feminine site. Misogony exposed.
You have refused to examine a quote of Pope Gregory simply because it was posted on a "Protestant" site. Hatred of Protestantism exposed.
Do you wish to keep going with your inanity?
Here is the same quote from a "Catholic" source. He agrees with Pope Gregory that Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany are one and the same. However, he uses the same quote as is used in the sites you refuse to examine due to your blind prejudice.
If this argument holds, then Mary Magdalene, the penitent woman, and Mary of Bethany are the same. Granted, we are still left with a little mystery. Nevertheless, I personally agree with Pope St. Gregory, who concluded, A She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary [of Bethany], we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark" (Homilies on the Gospels). St. Mary Magdalene, the repentant sinner, who found both forgiveness and friendship with our Lord, who stood faithfully at the foot of the cross, and who saw the risen Lord, is a powerful example for each believer.
By Fr. William P. Saunders
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 8/28/03)
CATHOLIC HERALD
OR - from a quasi Religious and Secular source.
Mary Magdalene, for instance, HAS been exonerated by the Catholic Church. The Vatican did it in 1969, but few Catholics seem aware of the historical cleansing. She is not the devout and penitent whore weeping at the foot of the cross, as I was brought up to believe. She didn't suffer the bum rap of being a prostitute until the end of the sixth century, when Pope Gregory I delivered a famous sermon in which he tagged her as the unnamed "sinner" in the Gospel of Luke.
John Hanchette, a professor of journalism at St. Bonaventure University, is a former editor of the Niagara Gazette and a Pulitzer Prize-winning national correspondent. He was a founding editor of USA Today and was recently named by Gannett as one of the Top 10 reporters of the past 25 years. He can be contacted via e-mail at Hanchette6@aol.com.
You may wish to continue your argument with him.
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