New Pope is Catholic! Sound the Alarm!

Was Reuters ever a respectable, balanced, intelligent source of news and information?

Arch-conservative German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope on Tuesday in a surprise choice that delighted traditionalist Roman Catholics but stunned moderates hoping for a more liberal papacy.

"Arch-conservative?" "Surprise choice?" And since when does "moderate" mean "pseudo-Catholic with no principles and no sense of Church doctine" or "non-Catholic meddler irked at the prospect of a religious figure with principles?" Really, to hear a liberal tell it, there can be no such thing as "left-of-center" because the center is planted firmly in the realm of Whacko-Leftist-Kook territory.

...Bernd Goehring, of the German ecumenical group Church from Below.

The name of the man and of his organization are the height of irony!

In a document in 2000, Ratzinger branded other Christian churches as deficient -- shocking Anglicans, Lutherans and other Protestants in ecumenical dialogue with Rome for years.

Look out, the Pope is a Catholic! Stunning!

I'm going now to remind you to read Sarnath's and Auskunft's earlier updates, which I only bumped out of the way because this article was too ridiulous not to pan; and to remember that this Reuters piece is not an editorial.

Well, it's not billed that way, anyway

This new Pope is already pissing off the right people, and making them surrender even the illusion of calm, considered disagreement.

I love it.