When Journalists Don’t Get Religion  Richard N. Ostling has
never gotten used to seeing journalists commit sins of omission
and commission on the religion beat.Religion can get very
complicated, with layers of emotion stacked on centuries of
history, doctrine, symbolism and ritual, said Ostling, who is
best known for his decades of work with Time and the Associated
Press. But mistakes are mistakes and it isn’t good for readers
to keep seeing stories that, week after week, cause them to
mutter, “Wait a minute. That’s just wrong.”  Here’s a prime
example, a mistake Ostling keeps seeing in reports about the
declining number of ordinations to the Catholic priesthood. This
mistake often shows up in news coverage of mandatory celibacy
for priests or the scandals caused by clergy sexual abuse.
Journalists often report that Rome does not ordain married
men.   “Now it would be accurate,” said Ostling, “to say that
the overwhelming majority of men ordained as Catholic priests
are not married. It would even be accurate