Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Fr. Barron's "Catholicism" is "sectarian" and not airable according to Twin Cities Public Television

NCReg
Thank you for your email inquiring about the program Catholicism.

After careful review, tpt has declined to air the four-part series "Catholicism", produced by Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and Picture Show Films.

While the program is very well produced and interesting, it does not meet our long-standing requirement that programs carried by tpt be "non-commercial, non-partisan and non-sectarian".

This standard is applied to all tpt programs: those provided by PBS and those (like the "Catholicism" series) coming from a non-PBS source.

While our programming policy does permit programming about religion and religious issues, the 'non-sectarian' requirement means we generally do not carry programs that express only a single religious point of view, or assert matters of religious faith as fact.  [The pope living in Rome is a matter of religious faith an not fact apparently]

In addition, the stated purpose of the producer (Word on Fire Catholic Ministries) is to "reach millions of people to draw them into or back to the Catholic faith." While tpt recognizes the importance of programming that brings understanding and illumination to matters such as religion, we do not believe the evangelical nature of this series is consistent with our standards.

Thank you again, for your interest in our programming.

Tom Holter
Executive Director, Programming
details at Catholic Hotdish