By JOHN CASTONGUAY

COLUMNIST

By the time this issue goes to print, the conclave may have selected a new pope. If so, it will not be too soon, for several reasons. Many are made uneasy by the prospect of a prolonged period without the Holy Father. The Church needs the guidance of a pope, especially in these difficult times. The selection of a new pope would hopefully signal a decrease in the mainstream media’s seemingly endless and frequently uninformed critiques of the Catholic Church.

I am not criticizing the media’s honest analysis of the impact of potential popes or how the sexual abuse scandals will affect the selection of the new pope. What I take issue with are the articles written based on limited information, written by people who lack an understanding of the church but want desperately to shape the decisions of the church hierarchy.

One example of a misinformed article on the church was written by The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. In her piece, “How Mary Feels About Being A Virgin,” she interviews Colm Toibin, author of The Testament of Mary.

In The Testament of Mary, Toibin casts doubt on the virginity of Mary, depicts the apostles as controlling “misfits” and claims they call “for hiding the truth to protect the institution they are building.”

This representation is factually baseless and serves only to reinforce pre-existing negative views of the Church.

Toibin’s treatment of the crucifixion and Dowd and Toibin’s baseless accusations regarding Pope Benedict also reveal their complete lack of understanding of and qualifications for writing about Catholicism. Toibin calls for Catholics to rethink their belief in the Crucificion as redeeming the sins of mankind.

What Toibin fails to recognize is the centrality of the Crucifixion to most denominations of Christianity. Removing this sacrifice would alter Catholicism so that it could no longer be understood as Catholicism. Toibin wants Catholics to casually change one of their central beliefs in order to please his sensibilities.

He also accuses Pope Benedict XVI of being gay based on the tact that the Pope has an amicable relationship with his secretary, Msgr. Georg Gänswein, who Toibin finds “beautiful.”

Toibin claims that “everyone is hoping for some change.  If you could see nuns making sermons. Clerical celibacy has to be abolished and soon. And we must begin allowing women into the priesthood.”

Toibin is not speaking for all those within the Church, but his own world view. His baseless accusations and clear lack of understanding of Catholicism disqualify him from being taken seriously.

I will follow Toibin’s example: Excuse me while I write about astrophysics and tell David Wright how to hit a baseball.