A number of “Case for” titles have been popularized in Christian circles lately, several of them written by former atheist journalist Lee Strobel, including The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for the Real Jesus. (I was looking forward to his eventual penning of The Case for Catholicism, but that one’s already been covered by Catholic apologist Trent Horn.)

Next week in Toronto, a group of Catholic journalists will make their own case — The Case for Religion Journalism — in a public panel discussion exploring the current state of religion reporting, why it still matters, and its place in today’s media landscape.

It wasn’t long ago that religion had a regular home in Canadian newspapers. Across the country, newspapers like The Vancouver Sun had writers like Douglas Todd who would explore religion and faith on a regular basis. But slowly, religion pages vanished, and then so did the media that once carried them.

On Aug. 14, veteran religion journalists will gather at St. John Henry Newman Catholic Church in Toronto to reflect on what’s been lost, and what the future might hold. The event is part of the “God in the City” Catholic journalism course, offered all week by Canadian Catholic News (CCN).

I’ll be moderating the panel, which features:

  • Barb Fraze, longtime international news editor for Catholic News Service

  • Michael W. Higgins, columnist and religion commentator for The Globe and Mail and CBC, affiliated with St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, and former interim president of St. Mark’s and Corpus Christi Colleges in Vancouver

  • John Longhurst, Order of Canada recipient and freelance religion writer for the Winnipeg Free Press, Religion News Service, and CBC Radio

  • Michael Swan, award-winning journalist and former associate editor of The Catholic Register, now freelancing for Canadian Affairs, will serve as respondent

The summer course is organized by CCN, with Matthew Marquardt of Catholic Conscience; Laura Ieraci, editor of ONE magazine; Barb Fraze; visual journalist Jermaine Bagnall, and me.

The initiative will build on CCN’s recent Teaching Truth in Charity journalism courses, as well as a recent session Ieraci, Fraze, and I presented in Phoenix — “What Makes Journalism Catholic?” — where we unpacked Canada’s MAiD debate and the broader collapse in media credibility. 

Sadly, trust in journalism has cratered, particularly in Canada. Recent surveys show trust in Canadian news as low as 32 per cent, with Statistics Canada reporting only 16 per cent of Canadians have “high trust” in the media.

Is the decline of religious journalism a symptom of media collapse or a cause? Maybe we’ll find out next week. But I do know that when the search for truth disappears, it’s not surprising that the search for God isn’t far behind.

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