It’s a Chasuble, Not a Poncho: #PapalGoofs

Over the weekend, America Magazine‘s Fr. James Martin, SJ tweeted a number of tips for members of the secular news media covering the Pope’s Apostolic Journey to Cuba and the United States.

Martin shared a bit of the background on the America website:

Yesterday, after having seen a few media goofs about Pope Francis and the Catholic church, I thought I might send out a few tweets to help my friends in the media. These are based not only on questions I’ve heard in the last few days, but also over the last 15 years in working with journalists.

It’s not surprising that there are goofs every once in a while. For one thing, no one’s perfect. For another, most religion journalists have to cover all religions–Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and all the rest–so it’s impossible to know everything. And for those of you who think that these goofs are part of some nefarious plot in the media to intentionally publish inaccuracies or use incorrect terms (I’ve heard this theory before), let me assure you that every single religion reporter I know tries hard to get the story right. In fact, every journalist wants to get his or her story right. Every once in a while, though, an error will creep in.