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CYBERSPACE, April 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholic bloggers (online self-published commentators), are having the time of their lives mocking and ridiculing and generally enjoying what they are calling the ‘apoplectic’ reaction from liberal mainstream media that has spent 25 years building up Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as the Catholic left’s bogy-man of “archconservatism.” Within hours of the new Pope’s first appearance, author and journalist Michael Rose had launched a new weblog, “Chronicle of Pope Benedict XVI.” Rose whose 2002 book, “Goodbye, Good Men” blew the whistle on the culture of homosexuality in many US seminaries, is keeping a running record of some of the media’s more outrageous sputterings.

Rose highlights one editorial from the Boston Phoenix which reads: “A frightening choice. If John Paul was a conservative, Benedict is a narrow-minded reactionary. For progressive Catholics, and for non-Catholics concerned about what this means for everyone else, this has been a sad and frightening week.”

“Benedict appears to be healthy and vigorous, so he should have more than enough time and energy to drag the Church back into the 19th century, at least.”

The Media Research Center (MRC) is monitoring the US media reaction that seems to be almost unanimous with almost all of them mentioning Benedict’s brief and unwilling membership in the Hitler Youth. MRC says CBS is the worst offender in its abundance of anti-Benedict slogans. ABC’s Charles Gibson in a leading question to William Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore, summed up the problem, “obviously this Pope does not agree with American Catholics.”

Germany’s top-selling daily, Bild, blasted English tabloids who began the frenzy with cover headlines such as, “From Hitler Youth to Papa Ratzi,” and “‘God’s Rottweiler’ is the new Pope.”

In Canada’s self-anointed ‘journal of record,” the Globe and Mail’s long reputation for anti-Catholicism is being manfully upheld. In one editorial Shawn Petriu went so far as to publicly wish for the new Pope’s death saying, “I pray the next conclave is not too far off.”

Today’s edition of the Globe treated its readers to the predictable liberal orthodoxies that ‘modern’ Catholics are better off without their religion. “For a church that is increasingly out of step with the needs and aspirations of its modern-day parishioners, he is a disappointing choice.”

Greg Narby made a comment that even the most ironic of Catholic bloggers would have difficulty parodying, “Apparently the Catholic Church believes in suicide after all (Germany’s Joseph Ratzinger becomes Pope Benedict XVI—on-line edition, April 19). How else could the election of Cardinal Ratzinger, the opponent of all things modern, be understood?”

It is to be wondered, however, who is out of touch with whom. The numbers make such comments patently ridiculous. In every case, and by every meaningful statistic, Catholic orthodoxy has been the leading factor in growth in dioceses, parishes, religious orders and seminaries, all of the most ‘conservative’ of which are experiencing nearly explosive growth. At least three women’s religious orders in the US known for their dedication to orthodox Catholicism have outgrown their room in the last five years and are barely able to build fast enough to accommodate applicants.

Syndicated conservative columnist Mark Steyn responded, “I think they were rooting for Ellen DeGeneres or Rupert Everett. And the fact that the new Pope is, in fact, a Catholic, seems to have come as a great surprise to them.”

Boston Phoenix editorial.