Catholics the world over greeted with joy the beatification of Padre Pio. The Capuchin friar bled from his hands for most of his life, the stigmata being only one element of mystery surrounding this holy man. But Time didn’t take too well to the news of his beatification, offering the headline, “Bleeding-Hands Man Gets Star Treatment” (May 10).
The short piece on Padre Pio began, “On the road to sainthood, it helps to have connections.” You get the point. “A mystic with blood on his hands,” is how the story develops.
The condescending tone is unfortunately all too common these days at Time. Though we have no personal favorite between Time and Newsweek, the file we have on the former dwarfs the latter.
P.S. We don’t keep files on those that don’t offend us.
