I’ve never been to journalism school, but I can imagine what must go onthere. Judging from the coverage of the Pope’s death, I assume that aspiringmedia types are taught that one of the key functions of the journalist intoday’s world is to lead us all in prayer.

All last week, the media went full throttle over Pope John Paul II’s death,taking on the role of comforter-in-chief.

Even before the Pope actually died, I was informed by the headline in everypaper on the newsstand that “the world” was praying for him.

Really? As I went about my errands, I knew that wasn’t true. I, for one,wasn’t praying for him, nor did anyone else seem to be.

CBC news readers referred to him as “the Holy Father” and talked about theneed to find a new “shepherd,” apparently forgetting that Canada is a modernsecular democracy, not a medieval theocracy.

Whatever happened to the notion that journalists are detached observers ofevents?

The media’s need for detachment is surely greatest when it deals withthose — like this Pope — who wield enormous power and influence over thelives of millions of people.

Sometimes the Pope used that influence to challenge arbitrary power, as hedid when he encouraged the downfall of the Soviet regime in Poland or whenhe opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

If only he’d gone to Iraq, like he’d gone to Poland, Washington probablywouldn’t have dared proceed with its carpet-bombing of Baghdad.

But, in other cases, the Pope came down solidly on the side of the rich andthe powerful, crushing Latin America’s liberation theology movement, whichsought to empower the poor. The Pope would have none of it.

His crusade against birth control, which perhaps seemed quaint and harmlessto North Americans, had a devastating impact on poor women around the world.His adamant resistance to condoms condemned powerless Africans to death byAIDS.

Then there’s the media’s curious suspension of moral outrage over the Pope’sfailure to deal firmly with pedophilia among priests in his own Church.

The media generally come down hard on pedophilia, yet little was made of theway the Pope largely turned his back on the problem, thereby sending themessage that abusing altar boys probably wasn’t all that bad in the schemeof things.

So the Pope was often on the side of those exercising arbitrary power overthe lives of extremely vulnerable people. As such, his legacy isn’tsomething to be simply adored and celebrated by the media.

For that matter, the media’s job isn’t to sell us on the papacy or createsuch a buzz that pre-teens figure it’s cool to become “pilgrims.” Themedia’s job should be to put tough questions to those with power, not act astheir cheerleaders.

If the media would put a little more effort into keeping a check on thepowerful, we could probably figure out for ourselves when to pray.

Linda McQuaig

Journalist and best-selling author Linda McQuaig has developed a reputation for challenging the establishment. As a reporter for The Globe and Mail, she won a National Newspaper Award in 1989...