BBC Criticised On documentary "Pope 'Led Cover-Up Of Child Abuse By Priests'

Extracted from The Daily Mail, UK
By STEVE DOUGHTY, 2nd October 2006

Church leader accuses BBC of bias against Catholic church

Relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the BBC have plunged to a historic low in the wake of the row over Panorama and the Pope.

The leader of Catholics in England and Wales accused the Corporation of 'persistent bias' and questioned its objectivity.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor also described the BBC 1 documentary that said Pope Benedict had covered up child abuse as 'malicious and untrue and based on a false presentation of Church documents.'

The strength of the language used by the Cardinal marks a new depth of hostility after three years of deteriorating trust between the Catholic Church and the BBC.

The Panorama documentary broadcast on Sunday evening accused Pope Benedict of playing a direct role in organising a systematic cover-up of child abuse by priests. It linked the Pope to the enforcement over a 20-year period of Vatican rules drawn up in 1962 which appeared to instruct bishops to keep incidents secret and block outside investigations.

One senior Catholic, Archbishop of Birmingham Vincent Nichols, has already responded to the programme by accusing the BBC of 'deep prejudice' and adding that 'viewers will recognise only too well the sensational tactircs and misleading editing.'

Yesterday Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, head of the Church in England and Wales, said in a letter to BBC Director General Mark Thompson that there was 'enormous distress and alarm' among Catholics.

The Cardinal said child abuse by priests was shameful and acknowledge the legitimacy of reporting 'this evil'.

But he continued: 'Your programme sets out to inflict grave damage on Pope Benedict, the leader of a billion Catholics throughout the world. 'I cannot understand why no-one from your Corporation made any attempt to contact the Catholic Church in this country for assistance in seeking accurate information about this matter.

'I must ask if within the BBC there is a persistent bias against the Catholic Church. There will be many, not only Catholics, who will wonder if the BBC is any longer willing to be truly objective in some of its presentations.'

The Cardinal added: 'What a pity if the respect in which the BBC is held worldwide were to be seriously undermined by the bias and lack of integrity shown in the decision to broadcast a programme such as this.'

The criticism yesterday appeared to mark the culmination of years of deep frustration among senior Catholics at the BBC's enthusiasm for attacking their Church.

In 2003 Church leaders made a series of strong criticisms of the BBC after months of news broadcasts in which reporters had tried to link Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor to incidents in which abuse allegations had been covered up.

Archbishop Nichols said then that one programme involved a 'personal vendetta' and attempts at 'digging for dirt'.

The Church also singled out Panorama three years ago as 'insensitive' for running a report about the Vatican doctrine on contraception at a time when the late Pope John Paul ll was celebrating his 25th anniversary on the Papal throne.

Catholic feeling towards the Corporation was not eased by the BBC's decision to buy a cartoon comedy, Popetown, in which the Pope was portrayed as infantile and dictatorial. Catholic leaders questioned whether Muslim, Jewish or Sikh figures would have been satirised in the same way. The programme was never broadcast.

Last month some senior Catholics felt that the BBC tried to deepen the row over the Pope's speech that referred to the Muslim Prophet Mohammed by exaggerating in its reports the extent to which Benedict had criticised Islam.