In the eyes of the MSM, Pope Benedict XVI has a problem. He's too darn . . . Catholic.
As the Pope begins World Youth Day in his native Germany, Today took the occasion to invite in Newsweek's Christopher Dickey for an oh-so-effete critique of Benedict XVI.
Interviewed by Katie Couric, Dickey first claimed that Europeans view Benedict "with some skepticism right now. People are looking at this Pope and saying what does he want to do by re-Christianizing Europe?"
Gee, and here I thought that was a Pope's job.
Dickey then added, with breathtaking condescension, "on the other hand he isn't creating the kinds of problems people thought he would. There was a lot of suspicion that he would be so emphasizing Christianity that it would alienate Muslims, that it would alienate Jews in Europe."
What a relief. We certainly can't have a Pope creating problems with that Christianity stuff.
Dickey let us know that things are no better in America. "I think American Catholics are worried" about the Pope, confessed Dickey with a sigh.
Why? "Because his record as the guardian of doctrinal purity for the last 20-something years was a record of great conservatism. He certainly was hostile to the idea of the ordination of women. There certianly is not going to be any movement on the issue of abortion."
Continued Dickey: "the issue of right to life generally from conception to death is one that is very important to him and to the extent that runs up against modern American values even among modern American Catholics, that suggests there will be confrontation."
Apparently there are no traditional Catholics left in the USA - only "modern" ones, in tune with "modern American values," who disdain "conservatism" and clamor for women priests and abortion on demand.
So here was one MSM standard-bearer interviewing a representative of another MSM mainstay, and the consensus was clear: among right-thinking people of sophistication, this Pope is really something of a bother and an embarrassment with all his unseemly emphasis on Christianity. It's really time to get modern, don't you know?
