Reading the article “Priest used church money on male escorts, lavish lifestyle“, I can’t help but notice something in its absence. There’s a word that shows up nowhere in the article… and that word is “Catholic”.
There are many crimes for which it would not be reasonable to name the perpetrator’s religion. It would be inappropriate to note that a mugger is a Jew, or a drunk driver a Protestant. But in this case, by avoiding the description of the religion, they’re avoiding saying just who the crime’s target was, as money would likely flow from the local church up the chain.
I can’t help but to suspect that this omission was not just a slip, that someone thought the news had been giving it too hard to the Catholic church in recent days. That would be a poor reason to duck covering the facts.
