You can criticize but maybe have documentation if you go around accusing people of stuff ...
If you are writing about real people online, especially when accusing Church people of heresy and subversive activities - make sure you have all your facts straight. Have backup, links, exact quotes, footnotes, and so on. In other words, have documentation, be able to identify your sources - and get it in writing. Especially if you name names or call people out as this or that. Religious people can be very litigious. Calumny and detraction, defamation and slander, are also sins. I may wrong, but there are canonical channels - especially for accusations of heresy and conspiracy. The case has to be heard, reviewed and adjudicated by the appropriate canonical authority. Good luck with that, though.
If you do get sued, you can maybe do what dioceses around the country do - just declare bankruptcy. Kidding.
That said, it seems to me the Catholic blogosphere is turning into a sewer.
What goes around comes around.
UPDATE: Fr. Geiger has posted on a different defamation case that has been circulating online, noting the "habitual refusal to accept personal accountability for the damaging information that has been released" on the part of bloggers:
The first point to be made is that the sources for recent the “reports,” are not responsible news outlets but bloggers, all of them, except one, are pseudonymous or anonymous. They have provided no evidence, that is, they have made purely hearsay allegations, or otherwise claimed to have “evidence” from which they have quoted excerpts without producing the document or its context. All the sources for these reports are clearly biased against the Commissioner and the Holy See and the bloggers in question are working in concert (Rorate Caeli and Correspondenza Romana, for example, regularly repeat and support each other’s reports).
Again, no reputable news outlet has taken responsibility for such “reports.” As far as I know—at least in the English-speaking world—no responsible news outlet has even repeated these stories emerging from the blogosphere. Please consider that when real journalists publish information from anonymous sources, the reporter takes personal responsibility with his real name, and the organization attempts to confirm the information by evidential reporting of independent sources. Nothing like this has ever been attempted by these bloggers. On the contrary, as already mentioned, there is an incestuous relationship between the various bloggers and their sources, and there has also been the habitual refusal to accept personal accountability for the damaging information that has been released. - Fr. Angelo
"Brothers and Sisters, this is the state of the Catholic Internet. It is a disgrace and a scandal to the world." - Fr. Angelo
Are Fr. Rosica and Msgr. Basil Loftus the same person? Catholic blogaholics need to know!
ReplyDeleteWho is Basil?
DeleteThis isn't about me going to Patheos, is it?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, though, if you're talking about what I think you're talking about, it's particularly breathtaking. I read about it via Dawn Eden last night - the level of gossip, hearsay, and manipulation is astounding.
It kind of is about you going to Patheos - Sr. Patricia sent me a registered letter so I may have to remove my post about going over to Patheos.
DeleteI didn't see Dawn's column - I'll check it out.
Congrats LarryD! Have fun with your new pals Mark Shea, Fr Longenecker, and Elizabeth Scalia and more charitable and devout Catholic bloggers!
DeleteMy "Catholic" reading list keeps getting smaller and smaller. And, for the most part, I keep my opinions of church stuff to myself.
ReplyDeleteI keep my opinions to myself too. What?
DeleteDoes this mean good bye, Adrienne? :-(
DeletePer my first comment, I now know what you are referring to.
ReplyDeleteI agree - what goes around, comes around.
I've been threatened with lawsuits over the years by the March of Dimes and by an advertiser including an abortion mill in his advertising packet and by abortion mills where we sat in. They are generally just trying to scare you, but when they have a legion of lawyers behind them like Fr. Thomas Rosica who threatened a Canadian blogger for reporting his own public statement....well...it is certainly intimidating. Often the calumny and detraction is coming from those wearing Roman collars. Remember Cardinal Kasper lying about reporter Edward Pentin? It would be nice to have a godly example from the shepherds. Sadly, many are wolves in sheepskins. But the Church will survive. She always does. In the meantime how painful it is to be persecuted by those who should be allies in the battle against evil.
ReplyDeleteI forgot about the Kasper/Pentin thing. But like I said - Church people can be litigious which is why documentation is key. The letters are the first step and usually work for them - esp. when it's a team of lawyers.
DeleteTeresa of Avila had to deal with a lot of lawsuits - but it was usually over property and permissions - not about exposing the sins of Church officials.
Nothing changes. I am learning though and when it gets to be too much, I shut it all off. Looking forward to doing just that this Lenten season...again. ^^
ReplyDelete