The New York Times Weird Obsession With the Catholic Church ( Vatican vs Nuns )

The New York Times this weekend gives us two the Vatican is just horrible screeds op-eds. From Maureen Dowd see Bishops Play Church Queens as Pawns and from  NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF We Are All Nuns .

A few observations if I may.

First I think its pretty clear that both columnists have not read the Vatican document , and if they had they are misleading.

Second , what is with the New York Times obsession with the Catholic Church? I fully get that there is a difference between the Op-Ed page and other reporting. However in this pundit age the op-eds and throwing meat to the wolves is what get the attention. I have always wondered what Baptist, Lutherans, Church of Christ, Hindus, Muslims, think about the SECULAR paper of record  odd obsessive coverage of Catholicism that seems one sided.. If one notices there are no people at the NYT that seem to have ample space to display their issues with Lutherans at the NYT.

Third, related to that last point you will notice that Kristof nor Dowd do columns on the horrible Eastern Orthodox Church and their various "sins" as to women. Why not?

I mentioned the other day I was wondering if the contribution of Vatican reporter John Allen would play a role in reporting of the Vatican vs Sister things. See Will Vatican VS American Nun Storyline Be More Nuanced Next Week?

John Allen is a rare bird. He is respected by both the Catholic "left" and Catholic "right" as to his reporting. I have to think he is both on Kristof and Dowd's radar. Yet there is no indication that they took his reporting into account as to their columns. I have a hard time believing they did not read his piece before hitting the submit button.

I don't care what side of the Vatican vs nuns debate you are on but the reality is this story is a lot more complicated than is being portrayed in the media.. Both Dowd and Kristoff and their master the NYT continues to do a disservice to their readers by their simplistic coverage of Catholic matters. To put it bluntly their readership is not getting informed which is sad for such a newspaper.