Papal Visit in NYC 2008 and Earth Day 2008

Cathryn Horwitz

Papal Visit to NYC, 2008

1. Profile: Peter Isely is a national board member of the Survivors Network of those Abused. Isely was sexually abused for three years in his Catholic school in Wisconsin, starting when he was 13 years old. He began his fight to bring the abuse out into the open and to pursue the matter legally 10 years ago. Profiling Isely would provide a different angle on the papal visit, highlighting the negativity simmering beneath the excitement about the visit. Pope Benedict XVI has only recently become vocal over the issue of sexual abuse by priests.

2. News Item: The papal visit to Park East Synagogue where he will meet Rabbi Arthur Schneier, a Holocaust survivor. A camera crew could capture the juxtaposition of the head of the Catholic church inside a synagogue, and the meeting of a Catholic and Jewish leader.

3. Enterprise piece: Before he was elected Pope in 2005, John Paul II appointed him, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as a prefect in Rome of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, previously known as the Holy Office and before that known as the Holy Inquistion. According to its profile its purpose is to protect the church from heresy, but it’s previous name including “inquisition” brings to mind other events, specifically the Catholic Inquisition in Spain. John Paul II was an extremely popular pope among Jewish citizens (in the United States and all over the world), but what disparity does this logical connection create between Jews and Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church of today. This can be connected to the news item on the papal visit to Park East and meeting with Rabbi Schneier.

Earth Day 2008

1. Profile: Robert Repetto and Seth Binder are the contacts for a website set up by Yale University to analyze the economic factors in reduction of carbon emissions. Yale’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies is responsible for the site.

2. News Item: Earth Week at Grand Central Terminal includes Giant Earth Images—which show Earth-related art, photographs, quotations and messages—and EarthFair—a two-day music and education festival in Vanderbilt Hall with earth-friendly exhibitions.

3. Enterprise Story: The EarthFair in Central Park will be an event focused on climate change and will involve several speakers and performers speaking out for immediate action against global warming. But such an event requires an enormous amount of electricity, produces litter by way of a large audience, and the venue--Central Park--and the animals residing there may be disturbed by the excess commotion and noise. A large amount of media coverage involves equipment, paper for broadcast scrips, helicopters and other potential pollutants. Will the EarthFair damage more than it helps and educates?