February 2, 2008 Channel 12 NEWSMAKERS
Today I had the opportunity to be at WKRC studios in MT Aubirn to tape channel 12 NEWSMAKERS, a current events television show on Sunday mornings at 11:00am. The topic was The Bodies: An Exhibition. The show is moderated by Dan Hurley, who is a reporter for channel 12 as well as Vice-President of the Cincinnati Historical societ at Union Terminal. The two other guests were a Rabbi from Wise Temple (who is on the Union Terminal exhibit ethics board) and a gentleman who works for a pro-life embryology group. I was the only person there who was against the nature of the exhibit. (For the record, Channel 12 and the Cincinnati Enquirer are both sponsors of the exhibit).
The big concern of the day was why the Archbishop did not allow diocesan schools to attend the exhibit. They showed a news clip of an interview with Fr. Michael Seger, the Moral Theologian here at the Seminary. My response was simple. As the chief teacher, it is the duty of the bishop to inform the faithful on the nature of the exhibit and he believed it to be inappropriate, as I do. One person commented that he thought the displays of the “specimens” were tasteful and inspiring and it helped people to be more in touch with their humanity. The pro-life gentleman also praised the display of the “fetuses” as a beautiful way of seeing fetal development. It seems to me upon reflection that they saw this as a kind of human “art exhibit.” Everyting was artful and tasteful and EDUCATIONAL. I reminded the group that these were human persons who had possessed souls and that this demeaned human dignity. It got nowhere. I should have added that it is not good to treat human corpses as artistic objects, and that the ends do not justify the means- but I can’t think of everything so fast.
Then Mr. Hurley mentioned that the diocese of Pittsburgh is actually encouraging its students to attend the shows in Pittsburgh, and that pamphlets on the show were being inserted into parish bulletins. I pointed out that the Pittsburgh statement (which luckily I had looked at in advance-this might have been Mr. Hurley’s attempt to ask me a “hard question”) had several flaws in it. Namely it only addressed the question of the source of the bodies, and not the nature of the process that turned human corpses into rubberized plastic models. (Probably with a 5000 year life span, though I am not sure). Again, when asked why two dioceses could have such different views, I mentioned that they (Pittsburgh) were missing the real issue of the nature of the body. No one commented further.
Finally at the end, I was able to present the position of the Church on the human body in nature to the Incarnation (I used small words) so that the Catholic position could be clearer, but by this time I was simply “spitting in the ocean.” As I was the only one who had not personally seen the exhibit, I was aksed if I was going to go see it. I said that I had seen parts of it on the internet, and concluded by saying I might. I realize that this was also a stupid thing to say. I should have said not only no, but HELL NO.
This is the gist of the show. The biggest problem was that there was only 18 MINUTES to have this discussion, which is no time at all to really get into it with three people and a moderator. As I said, the deck was stacked and with only four responses, I did very little to help the cause of helping people to see that this exhibit is not a good thing. For me, the biggest problem is that the people seemed blind to the reality and they think they are providing a real service to the community by bringing these cut up, rubberized dead human persons and charging 23.00 a person to see it. It only proves to me that right is now wrong, and wrong is now right
Then, when I was watching the 5:00pm and 5:30 news on Channel 12, the anchors spoke of a type of “showdown this Sunday on 12 newsmakers.” But it is a load of you know what. News is more hype than fact anymore. If you want to see it, I believe it will be on this Sunday at 11:00am on channel 12. I hope if there is a next time for me, I will do better.
Please pray for all priests and seminarians and support SACRED HEART RADIO.
