Jews in the Media

Jerusalem Post reports on a Vanity Fair article on powerful people.

It’s a list of “the world’s most powerful people,” 100 of the bankers and media moguls, publishers and image makers who shape the lives of billions. It’s an exclusive, insular club, one whose influence stretches around the globe but is concentrated strategically in the highest corridors of power.More than half its members, at least by one count, are Jewish.

It’s a list, in other words, that would have made earlier generations of Jews jump out of their skins, calling attention, as it does, to their disproportionate influence in finance and the media. Making matters worse, in the eyes of many, would no doubt be the identity of the group behind the list – not a pack of fringe anti-Semites but one of the most mainstream, glamorous publications on the newsstands.

Yet the list doesn’t appear to have generated concern so far, instead drawing expressions of satisfaction and pride from the lone Jewish commentator who’s responded in writing.

Pope Benedict XVI to Beatify Priest Who Tortured

John Allen reports on the upcoming beatification of 498 Catholics who were killed in the Spanish Civl War. Fr. Gabino Olaso Zabala, however, was involved in the torture of a Filipino priest.

According to written testimony from the victim, Olaso participated in the 1896 torture of a Filipino priest named Fr. Mariano Dacanay, who was suspected of sympathy for anti-Spanish revolutionaries. Dacanay’s own account asserts that Olaso and a handful of other Augustinians encouraged guards who were administering the torture, and that at one point Olaso himself kicked Dacanay in the head, hard enough to leave the suffering priest semi-conscious.

Historians generally regard Dacanay’s testimony as credible. Augustinian Fr. Fernando Rojo, the Rome-based postulator for the cause of Olaso and the other Augustinian martyrs, told NCR Oct. 10 that he does not see “any reason to doubt the basic historical accuracy of the facts” contained in Dacanay’s account.

Allen offers the excuse, “To be sure, Olaso’s conduct must be understood in the context of his times, since the late 1890s were a violent era in the Philippines.”

But he was a priest, a representative of the Prince of Peace, whose teachings of non-violence have been spread for 2000 years. That’s the true historical context.

And what of the historical context for this beatification–the world today?

Nonetheless, the revelation that someone set for beatification by Pope Benedict XVI was a willing participant in torture may be disconcerting – in the first place for Filipinos, who see the 1896 rebellion as a key moment in the birth of their nation; and more broadly for those concerned with contemporary moral and legal debates over torture, especially in the context of the “war on terrorism.” Despite clear official Catholic teaching against torture, some may wonder if the church is sending a mixed message by beatifying someone who apparently administered torture himself.

Update: See discussion at Commonweal.

Al Gore: Different Verdicts

Al Gore gets Nobel Peace Prize for movie that British judge rules contains errors of “alarmism and exaggeration.”

Gerald Augustinus posts several articles about another Peace Prize winner–Rigoberto Menchu, whose autobiography was proven to be a work of fiction. That hasn’t bothered the Nobel committee.

Papal Power Tug-of-War

The tug-of-war between the pope and the bishops continues. Fr. John Zuhlsdorf posts another example of a bishop doing his best to reinterpret the recent papal document freeing the Latin mass (No surprise on this one–Donald W. Trautman).

He also posts a “shot over the bow” from Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (emphasis is Zuhlsdorf’s):

The motu proprio Summorum Pontificum on the Latin Liturgy of July 7^th 2007 is the fruit of a deep reflection by our Pope on the mission of the Church. It is not up to us, who wear ecclesiastical purple and red, to draw this into question, to be disobedient and make the motu proprio void by our own little, tittle rules. Even not if they were made by a bishops conference. Even bishops do not have this right. What the Holy Fathers says, has to be obeyed in the Church. If we do not follow this principle, we will allow ourselves to be used as instruments of the devil, and nobody else. This will lead to discord in the Church, and slows down her mission. We do not have the time to waste on this. Else we behave like emperor Nero, fiddling on his violin while Rome was burning. The churches are emptying, there are no vocations, the seminaries are empty. Priests become older and older, and young priests are scarce.

Update: Z. now posts an interview with Msgr. Perl from the Ecclesia Dei Commission who confirms they are drafting new guidelines for bishops. Perl underscores that the issue, as the Vatican sees it, is a simple one: obedience to the pope.