On Wednesday, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro appeared on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha McCallum” to discuss the media’s defense of Pope Francis in the wake of allegations that he covered up sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church. Shapiro denounced the media for seemingly placing their leftist principles over the protection of innocent children, asserting, “I’ve rarely seen a more disgusting example of press behavior than this.”
MacCallum began, “How far might liberals go who are very fond of Pope Francis, to protect him? Once hailed for his progressive views on issues like homosexuality and climate change, he is now facing some very disturbing allegations by one of his own archbishops, suggesting that he knew about the sexual abuse that was happening within the church ranks, very near the top, and then helped cover it up.”
MacCallum turned to Shapiro: “You wrote about this. You talked about it on your podcast today. What do you see as the hypocrisy in the coverage on this story?”
Shapiro responded:
It’s pretty astonishing. So several years ago, obviously, when the media started to delve into all of the sex abuse allegations against the Catholic Church, there was a great deal of enthusiasm, I think rightly so, in the press, for investigating all of that. But now that Pope Francis is at the head of the church and they like Pope Francis more than they liked Pope Benedict, in the left-wing press, suddenly they have to rush to Pope Francis’ defense over these allegations. And The New York Times ran one of the worst headlines I’ve ever seen today, talking about how as the allegations against Pope Francis mount, conservatives pounce. Conservatives pounce? How is conservatives pouncing on sex abuse allegations the story?
MacCallum put the title of The New York Times piece on the screen: “Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce.”
Shapiro continued, “It’s an amazing accusation that the story is not actually, ‘Serious Allegations Levied at the Head of the Catholic Church by Other Lead Members of the Catholic Church Over a Cover-up of Sex Abuse of Children,’ no, the real story is that conservatives might use this to go get an icon for the political left. It just demonstrates that for the Left, it does make you wonder whether it’s an actual priority to protect children or whether the higher priority is to protect the politics that they see as imperative.”
MacCallum then played an interview with Cardinal Cupich in which he said, “The pope has a bigger agenda. He’s got to get on with other things of talking about the environment and protecting migrants and carrying on the work of the church. We’re not going to go down a rabbit hole on this.” MacCallum asked, “Has he seen the stories that were published about the Pennsylvania diocese and what they did to these children?”
Shapiro responded, “How exactly is what Supich just said not the headline on every major paper in the United States? The only possible rationale is that a lot of the members of the press actually agree that when it comes to choosing between leftist politics in the Catholic Church and protecting children, leftist politics have to take center stage. “
Shapiro continued:
Can you imagine if Pope Benedict had said anything like this six, seven years ago when he was the head of the Catholic Church and when these allegations were in full swing against the Boston archdiocese? Of course it would have been the end of the world. And it should be the end of the world, because when people in positions of power are covering for institutional disgusting and criminal behavior, that should be the end of the world, particularly when it’s a religious institution that is tasked with presumably God’s word on Earth.
But instead, the press, at least at The New York Times, seemed deeply concerned with protecting Pope Francis from any and all comers because they like Pope Francis. I’ve rarely seen a more disgusting example of press behavior than this. It’s truly an amazing, amazing thing.
MacCallum noted, “The same people who were so hard on the Church when Spotlight came out and when those stories came to light should be absolutely leading with these stories and asking him (Francis) these hard questions and pressing people like Supich.” MacCallum then pointed out that Jesus was vehement about protecting children.
Shapiro commented:
Again, it’s an amazing thing, and I think it goes to the fact that when it was Pope John Paul II or when it was Benedict, then the press didn’t like those guys because those guys were very conservative, particularly on social issues, but because Pope Francis is, I think, in his essence, a liberation theologist who believes a lot of left-wing things about climate change and redistribution of income and illegal immigration, they’re going to protect him from accusations from the so-called conservative wing of the church, which, after all, is basically just asking the pope to, I don’t know, enforce what seems to me to be basic Catholic doctrine for the past couple of thousand years.
MacCallum commented: “I think everybody on both sides of the conservative/liberal argument, ought to be able to get on the same side, that everybody is against criminal behavior and pedophilia, right?”
Shapiro concluded powerfully, “When you are treating the pedophilia of children and the mistreatment of children, abuse of children, as a political football in order to protect your guy, I would suggest that you’re the evil one in the scenario.”
Video below: