Conveniently Ignoring the Obvious

America magazine made a mistake. It ran a deceptively presented and offensive advertisement in its December 5 issue. I find the advertisement offensive and so, by the way, do the Jesuits at America. This should come as no surprise.

Yet, what was obviously an oversight by whomever is responsible for vetting the advertisements, has become another opportunity for the tiresome anti-Jesuit voices to chastise us bad Jesuits.

Bill Cork is “shocked” and “outraged,” and for good reason, but his shock and outrage is misdirected. He should be shocked and outraged at Steve Rosenthal, the artist who duped America magazine into running what, at first glance, looks simply like an ad for a piece of devotional artwork.

Yes, somebody at America obviously dropped the ball on vetting the ad copy. But to even suggest that the offending advertisement was included deliberately and conscious of what, at second glance, the ad seems obviously to be selling is disingenuous.

And how should a responsible Catholic journalist act when coming across such an obvious oversight? If it were me, I would charitably contact the magazine and make them aware of the problem, so they can catch it before the next issue comes out. But that's just me. I would not write a caustic commentary as Joseph Bottum does. And Diogenes’ acerbic rant against “America’s thinking Catholics” shows very little thought itself.

Criticize the magazine for the oversight, if you want. That's fair. But don't be so silly as to imply that it was knowingly done. That, too, is offensive.