Talk:Swanson v. Roman Catholic Bishop

Did you know nomination

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• ... that a priest and marriage counsellor's affair with his client went to Maine's highest court over religious freedom?

• Source: see first para of facts and lower court and attached sources

• Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Wunderschön prächtige

Moved to mainspace by Theleekycauldron (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 82 past nominations.

theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 23:50, 23 May 2026 (UTC).

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy compliance:

• Adequate sourcing:
• Neutral: - If I'm interpreting right, the case was dismissed, so no court ever decided if Morin and Swanson had an affair and what the effect(s) were if they did. Things like "Morin advised Ruth... to postpone the ceremony, showing an interest in her; the two began an affair in August 1991." and "Albert then discovered the affair, at which point it ended." imply factual occurrence to me. I think the overall story should be couched as allegations (as is done in the lede).
• Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook eligibility:

• Cited:
• Interesting:
• Other problems: - Similar to above, should the hook call it an alleged affair? It was not proven in court and I don't see an admission from Morin mentioned; he just acknowledges that he knew Ruth was attracted to him. On a more minor note, "priest and marriage counselor" makes it sound like it's two separate people (a compound subject, rather than one person holding two roles). Suggest something like "a priest serving as a marriage counselor"

QPQ: Done.

Overall: @Theleekycauldron: Very interesting article. New enough (moved to mainspace 23 May, same day as DYKN), long enough (2181 words), and supported by reliable sources. EW in yellow at 65.4% but this is due to block quotes of properly-cited justices' opinions. Spot-check of Wolfe 1993 and Klasing 1998 found no CLOP. Neutrality concerns raised above as well as a minor phrasing point about the hook, but it is certainly interesting. No image to review and QPQ is done. Best, Zzz plant (talk) 16:02, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

• Thanks for the thorough review, Zzz plant! I think the facts section does have "allege"s in both paragraphs – I could add more, but I worry that using more than one per makes the implication of factuality stronger where I don't use it, and then I'm using it everywhere. Copyediting the hook, though:
  • ALT0a: ... that a priest–marital counselor's alleged affair with his client went to Maine's highest court over religious freedom?

Let me know, thanks! theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 20:05, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

• ALT0a looks great! However, I am still a tad iffy on the Facts subsection. I get not wanting to sprinkle "alleged" all over, but right now the caution feels backwards: there's hedging for less controversial details (like "[They] allege that they were going through a difficult time in their marriage"), but the presumably contested affair is stated plainly to have happened. I would prioritize marking the spicier aspects of the case as alleged. For his part, Wolfe makes liberal use of "the lawsuit says" and "according to the lawsuit" in his 1993 reporting. Zzz plant (talk) 20:27, 1 June 2026 (UTC)
  • Good idea, done! theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 21:08, 1 June 2026 (UTC)
    • Thank you for those changes. I’m sorry to be nitpicky about this one section - esp given the rest of the article is in excellent shape - but I think that by stating that Morin "assured", "acknowledged", and "assured" again without any hedging, the prose still tells the reader that these specific conversations happened as he describes. And "Albert then discovered the alleged affair" feels a bit like a logical paradox- how could he objectively discover something that is only alleged? I would suggest something along these lines for the second para: "According to the complaint, Albert approached Morin for advice on his marriage, worrying that Ruth was attracted to another man. The lawsuit states that Morin assured Albert he would help, but when Albert later confronted him about Ruth's attraction, Morin acknowledged the situation and claimed he was handling it professionally. According to the Swansons, Albert subsequently discovered the affair, at which point it ended." Zzz plant (talk) 21:30, 1 June 2026 (UTC)
      • No, all good, I added that in :) theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 22:35, 1 June 2026 (UTC)
        • Approve ALT0a :-) Zzz plant (talk) 22:48, 1 June 2026 (UTC)