HBO's 'Priestly Sins' long on sensation, imprecision

National Catholic Reporter, May 24, 1996 by Raymond A. Schroth

The television writer for The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune, Mark Lorando, swallowed the program whole. The New York Times' Walter Goodman took brief exception to the eerie slow motion and fuzzy pictures. United Features Syndicate's Kirk Nicewonger said this "makes the average supermarket tabloid look like a Pulitzer Prize candidate."

Of course, the USCC's response would be stronger if it had offered more than a page-and-a-half critique and if the hierarchy had done studies of its own on the sexual behavior of priests that it was confident enough to make. public. Maniscalco argues that all scientific studies of sexual activity are notoriously unreliable. Respondents are as likely to exaggerate their behavior, he says, as to minimize it.

He may be right. But we're going to have to do better than saying that most priests keep their vows.

Meanwhile, "Priestly Sins" will be telecast at least three more times this month. And in Ireland, according to a survey in the London Tablet March 16, because of the sex scandals, the public esteem of the clergy has fallen so low that it is only "0.1 points over journalists, normally the most despised category."

Jesuit Fr. Raymond A. Schroth, now at Loyola University, New Orleans, will be assistant dean of Fordham University beginning in July.