The Chicago Trib’s “public editor” (which I guess is another way of saying ombudsman?) addresses the issue of using Francis Kissling as a source for Catholic perspectives

As journalists in the secular media, we are basically agnostic on these issues, for reasons both practical and principled.

It is not for us to referee contests within the Catholic Church over who is legitimate and who is not. We don’t have the expertise to make theological judgment calls. Heck, we find it hard enough to get basic religious facts and terminology correct: Within the last month, in different parts of the Tribune, we have labeled a Methodist cleric a “priest” in a headline, had nuns being “ordained” and made the president-elect of Notre Dame a “Jesuit.”

Our practice here at the Tribune–and in most news shops, I suspect–is generally to call people what they call themselves, and let the readers decide whether they are being honest or phony.

So if Kissling and her organization want to call themselves Catholic, we’ll honor that. If the bishops want to contest that use of the name in the marketplace of ideas, we’ll report that.