Shock! New Pope a Catholic!

Opinion - Gerard Baker

Baker hits the nail on the head regarding much of the media coverage of Benedict XVI. Spectacular ignorance of the internal dynamics of the Catholic Church has led the media to treat this selection process like a U.S. presidential election and, I think, to overexaggerate the importance of American Catholics (which, I read somewhere, make up about 6% of the worldwide Catholic Church). Dire predictions of an exodus of American Catholics have revealed the shocking arrogance and self-absorption of the American media -- which comes out in the form of them not-so-subtly suggesting to the Catholic Church what it should have done.