Royal Wedding and Pope John Paul II Beatification Double-Standard

Interestingly enough, there hasn't been much news on the upcoming beatification of John Paul II in Rome this coming Sunday. Every night on the news, we've been inundated by William and Kate's wedding, which is taking place on Friday in London. Literally every night on the National they do a special report on it, and the hosts of the show will be traveling to Britain to cover the event. In fact, coverage will begin at 2am on CBC Friday morning. So that's why it's so strange that not a single mention of Pope John Paul II being beatified has been made on the same news program. Not even a brief mention.

Even though it has not been mentioned, the beatification is not much smaller than the wedding. There will be an estimated 1.1 million visitors to the city to witness the event, about the same as the wedding. I'm not sure of the television viewership for the Vatican ceremony. However, for the royal wedding, some are predicting an astounding 2 billion viewers.

Of course, if some priest, anywhere in the world was charged with the abuse of a minor, even if it happened 30 years ago, that would be headline news. It is frustrating that the news seems to have such a bias against the Church. Catholic events are usually downplayed. When the pope visited Canada for World Youth Day, it was covered, but not nearly as much as it should have been. Indeed, it was the largest gathering in Canadian history.

Hopefully after the wedding, the main news organizations will broadcast more on the last pope's beatification. It's the final step before canonization or the act of declaring someone a saint officially. More likely though, the news channels will simply air endless "analysis" of the royal wedding and the pope's beatification will be a side-story at best.

Check out the following news article for more information:

Rome to Host 1 Million Pilgrims for John Paul Beatification - Bloomberg