Comments about our Papal coverage

Pope Francis greets the crowdin St. Peter's Square after being elected to lead the Catholic church.(Associated Press/L'Osservatore Romano)

Our coverage of the Catholic Church and the recent papalconclave generated a significant number of comments from our audience. As isthe case with all major stories, the comments reflected all perspectives, fromthose who felt we produced too much coverage to those who thanked us forbringing them an important story.

One letter took the time to list examples of what the writersaw as "unmistakable bias" in favour of the Roman Catholic Church. "Noother religious organization receives the coverage that is given to the RomanCatholic Church in length, frequency, content and tone," it said. Theletter focused on our coverage of the naming of saints, our Canadian lens, andour lack of coverage of other religions.

CBC's journalistic policy acknowledges that balance does notnecessarily mean some sort of mathematical equivalency. Balance does not, forinstance, mean that every story about Catholics must be immediately juxtaposedwith equally strong stories about Baptists, Jews, Anglicans, Muslims, Jains,Buddhists and so on. Such a requirement would effectively end intelligentjournalism. We do and have covered significant stories of interest about all ofthose religions and more. The most important thing is to ensure that allreligions, and indeed all points of view, are treated in an equitable manner.

And I believe we are doing that.

We responded to this particular letter by addressing all ofthe examples and making the case that our coverage was well-considered, consistentand appropriate.

The letter said our stories about the naming of saints havebeen frequent and inappropriate. We replied that reporting on the canonizationprocess, in and of itself, does not constitute partiality. It also does notimply that CBC News has determined saints exist or that the Roman CatholicChurch has a monopoly on naming them, as was implied in the letter. And we havecertainly not catalogued every person named a saint.

Our coverage has been limited to stories of wide public interest,usually with a Canadian connection, such as our October 21, 2012, report onKateri Tekakwitha, the first aboriginal North American to be canonized. Shedied in 1680 in what's now Kahnawake, Quebec. And when we have tackled acanonization story in depth, we have acknowledged the skeptical view ofsainthood in general, as in this October 18, 2010, online story aboutMontreal's Andr Bessette, "The life and times of Canada's newest saint". The story included this background:

"To non-believers, much of this talk of healings is thestuff of hocus-pocus or quackery. Particularly as many of these cures don'tinvolve him directly but rather prayer medallions bearing his likeness, ornotes left at the foot of a statue of St. Joseph in the gargantuan shrine builtat Brother Andr's behest. What's more, this talk of miracles hardly seems tofit today's more secular Quebec, with its near-empty pews and huge antipathytowards its Catholic past."

The letter also asserts that we have regularly reported onnewly named Canadian cardinals while systematically ignoring the appointment ofother religious leaders. In February last year, we did report about theinduction of Thomas Collins, the Archbishop of Toronto, into the elite club ofcardinals. Cardinal Collins is one of only three living Canadian cardinals, the16th Canadian cardinal in the history of the church. It is a prestigiousappointment for a Catholic and one we feel was of interest to all Canadians,not just members of the Catholic Church.

CBC News has regularly reported the appointment of religiousleaders in other churches as well. Among them:

• Earlier this month, we reported about theappointment of Bishop Mina as Canada's first Coptic Christian bishop.
• On August 17, last year, CBC Radio reported thatGary Paterson had been named the new moderator of the United Church of Canada.
• And two months later, on November 4, we reportedthe appointment of Tawadros II, the new Coptic Christian Pope.

The resignation of Pope Benedict and the selection of hissuccessor was the first time in almost 600 years that a pontiff had retiredinstead of dying in office, and a Canadian cardinal was widely considered aserious candidate to replace Benedict.

And it is also the case that many stories about the papacygo beyond coverage of a specific faith. The Catholic Pope is an influentialworld figure, and Vatican City is a sovereign state, recognized by the UnitedNations, and with diplomatic relations all over the world. Just as we regularlycover changes in the leadership of many countries, especially when they havedirect links to Canada, we consider changes in papal leadership newsworthy.

And we have not systematically ignored other faiths. Takethe United Church of Canada, for example. In August 2012, we covered a vote bythe United Church's general council to endorse a contentious boycott of goodsfrom Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. And last month,CBC News ran radio stories on tough decisions that the United Church is makingabout property it owns in Halifax, about a food bank program the United Churchis running in Ottawa, and about a United Church minister from New Brunswick whois in Bethlehem as part of a World Council of Churches human rights observerprogram. This is just a sampling of our overall coverage of different organizedreligions.

It's worth noting that, just as in the selection of a newPope, our coverage of Roman Catholicism has been guided by news judgment, andtherefore much of it has been focused on sexual abuse scandals, dwindlingchurch attendance, and challenges to conservative stances against gay marriageand the ordination of women by outside critics as well as by some Catholicparishioners. We have also regularly covered aspects of Catholicism that are anentrenched part of Canadian society and culture, such as battles over privateschool board funding in communities across the land. These are all valid andrelevant stories.