An image-boosting campaign by Switzerland's Catholic Church is instead being seen by many as an attempt to distract attention from a child sex scandal.

The "More Good News" campaign, which has already been postponed once in the wake of revelations across Europe of paedophilia involving priests, will try to convince people to become "“ or remain "“ one of the faithful.

But voices inside and outside the Church are divided. Norbert Brunner, president of the Swiss Bishops Conference, says the Church risks a "crash landing" with the campaign, which is now set to begin on May 16.

According to the campaign team, the ambiguity in the title is not an accident: "More Good News" is not only an allusion to the Christian Gospel but also a call for more positive news "in a media world in which news is measured by conflicts and scandals".

More than 5,000 posters proclaiming "More Good News" have been printed and sent to the country's 2,000 parishes.

The Church considers good news, in the media sense, successful church activities or notable events in a parish. One such piece of news on the campaign website is the "19 girls and boys who took their First Communion in the parish of Niederhelfenschwil-Zuckenriet".

An example of "international Good News" quoted by the campaign is the Pope's recent decision to forgive John Lennon for saying "“ in 1966 "“ that the Beatles were "bigger than Jesus".

While some might consider this a little late, it's considerably quicker than the almost 400 years it took for the Catholic Church to formally apologise in 1992 for its treatment of Galileo and admit that the earth does in fact go round the sun.

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr said he was astounded, saying he thought the Church would have more pressing concerns at the moment than forgiving pop bands.

Diversion or deception?

Indeed, the Catholic Church is facing one of its gravest crises in decades as a sexual abuse scandal sweeps Europe, with Pope Benedict XVI himself accused of playing a central role in a cover-up.

In Switzerland, church leaders say about 70 people have reported that they were victims of abuse by priests in the past 15 years.

The Vatican has responded by saying the Pope would not be distracted by "idle chatter", but last week it was forced into a climb-down after a senior cardinal caused an international outcry by linking homosexuality with paedophilia.

Many Swiss bloggers and readers of newspapers online have reacted angrily to the "Good News" campaign.

"Diversion or deception? It will be nothing else," wrote one. "What does the Catholic Church have to offer people nowadays other than an old, uptight worldview? Only when this is relaxed will we be able to talk of Good News. Everything else is just a diversion from the Church's real problems."

Xaver Pfister, spokesman for the Catholic Church in canton Basel City, also thinks that under the circumstances the campaign in unwise.

"When you read 'Good News', you think of the abuse cases. People might talk about 'Good News', but only 'Bad News' comes out," he said.

Smoke screen

But Werner de Schepper, vice president of the Swiss Bishops Conference's media commission "“ a spin doctor of divinity, as it were "“ has a totally different view.

"The timing of this campaign is perfect! It's about the still explosive, revolutionary message of the Good News of the Gospel," he said.

De Schepper sees the "More Good News" campaign partly as a criticism of the secular media and of society, but also of the church.

"I want to work for a church that leaves space for good news and against a church that has obviously hidden cases of abuse behind a smoke screen of good news for decades."

Another online contributor agreed that "a lot more good happens in the Catholic Church than one hears about" and that this should be reported more. But they believed the timing of the campaign was wrong.

"The most important thing now is to clean up the problems. So long as cases of abuse are not dealt with satisfactorily, campaigns are pointless."

Transparency

Pfister agrees. He finds de Schepper's view that one should be taken aback by the media's bad-news-is-good-news attitude too abstract. What's more, for him the story about First Communion "isn't Good News".

He calls, above all, for transparency. He cites the recent example of the abbot of a monastery in Einsiedeln in canton Schwyz who said on television that the Catholic Church would only go to the authorities in a case of abuse if the victim agreed.

This statement has since been "clarified" by the Swiss Bishops Conference: in future they planned to report such cases to the authorities immediately.

In the current situation, Pfister would like the church to orient itself inwards. "It should let the many unsure Catholics know how it is dealing with the abuse cases."

Genuine good news must be created, he said, and for that, transparency is necessary. Pfister pointed to Pope Paul VI (1897-1978), who said the Church had to be a glass house inside which one could see everything "“ a place where there was nothing to hide.

Instead, he said, the Church was an "ancient, sluggish institution".

Etienne Strebel, swissinfo.ch (Adapted from German by Thomas Stephens)