Priest Does What Lots of People Do: News at 11

Drudge linked to a news story about a Catholic priest shoplifting at a Walmart.

...and?

That's pretty much the story, so far as the article goes.

I think I missing how this is a particularly meaningful news story. A quick and dirty google search pulled up a site that alleges to study the causes of shoplifting, the conveniently named National Association for Shoplifting Prevention.

According to this clearly legitimate and authoritative source (I mean, I found it on the Internet after all):

the majority of shoplifters...steal for a variety of reasons, mostly related to common life situations and their personal ability (or inability) to cope. They include people who are depressed, frustrated, anxious, influenced by peers, thrill seekers or kleptomaniacs. Non-professional shoplifting is rarely about greed or poverty. It's about individuals struggling with personal conflicts and needs.

So, really, the story is "man pursues extremely challenging vocation might be dealing with turmoil the same way anybody else would." Is the point supposed to be that he is a fool because he isn't turning to God to sufficiently deal with his psychological problems? Is it supposed to expose some kind of inefficacy regarding God's power?

I'm not really sure what the news story is getting at.

Taking a second look at the source hosting the story, though, I think Drudge might be playing with us. The article appears on NBC Chicago. It might be that Drudge is suggesting that things are so bad in Obama's home state that even priests can't escape getting sucked into criminal behavior. That's how Drudge might see it, at least.

Comments

[Akh Ari]

I hope we're not yet at the point where we actually expect priests to behave just like any "lewid" man. For if a prest be foul on whom we truste, etc.

[Peter Terp]

Or, as Chaucer says, "If gold rusts, what shall iron do."

Only, he probably spelled it all funny-like.

Still, holding priests to a higher moral and spiritual standard does not necessarily imply that we should feel their failures are more newsworthy than any other persons--at least when it comes to something like shoplifting.

It's human nature, perhaps, to turn this into scandal when it needn't be. That is where the real conflict lies.

A priest's failure creates scandal by becoming the subject of journalism in ways that a reporter would overlook it in another person--and yet the journalism itself bears some of the responsibility for turning it into scandal rather than just news.

In a way, it's an example of the news creating itself.