Here in the US, I have availed of the BBC News website that provided full coverage of the papal visit, making use of the official feed from the Papal Visit website (presumably provided by the Vatican) and their own cameras and commentators.
My overall impression: BRILLIANT JOB.
You can watch the BBC's Highlights of the Papal Visit here. It is beautifully accompanied by Praise to the Holiest.
Of course they presented something of the protests, and also covered the issue of the abuse scandal. But overall they were informed and sought the commentary of competent Catholic laity and clergy.
The presenters also allowed themselves to be caught up by the atmosphere of the occasion. Notably this afternoon, the lady covering the Pope's visit to the seminarians at Oscott was clearly overwhelmed by the love (she hesitated to use the word) that the future priests of the Catholic Church manifested towards the Holy Father. Far from a Church demoralised and weighed down by scandal, or irrelevant, she and other presenters witnessed and reported a Church alive and whose members are a significant section of the population of Britain.
Being abroad I do not get to see other programmes put out by the BBC or other channels. I daresay there will be analysis, some of which will be negative. But as for the actual coverage of the events, they were excellent.
By the way, when people go on about the cost to the taxpayer, Catholics are taxpayers too
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Yes Father, a hugely successful visit by the Holy Father - which even the secular media had to acknowledge. Once again many people encountering the man, Joseph Ratzinger, saw the real person - kind, gentle and thoughtful - and not the one so often portrayed in the past.
ReplyDeleteWhat will be the effect of his visit? Nothing but good, I suspect - both within and outside the Church. As William Oddie concluded in The Catholic Herald:
"For, in the end, let us never forget that what we have witnessed has come from God, whose presence has been very close throughout not only to the Pope himself but also to all who were praying for his success – protecting, inspiring, allaying our fears and in the end fulfilling all our hopes."
It was great coverage, barring a certain obsession with problematic areas.
ReplyDeleteA great relief after the unpleasant atmosphere stoked up beforehand.
If I were a secularist, I would be hopping mad.
I couldn't agree more. The BBC coverage (and Sky) has been excellent. There has been blanket coverage on the BBC News channel in addition to coverage of the main events on BBC 2 and the coverage of the liturgies was first class. For once there was no annoying commentary over the silences such as during Benediction at the Hyde Park Vigil.
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