The Parochial Mind

Early this morning came the surprising announcement that Pope Benedict XVI will step down in late February.  Courtesy of the First Thoughts blog, here are some of the reactions to this news from liberals in the media (but I repeat myself):

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times:

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post:

No wonder public trust in the news media is at an all time low.

And if you are interested, Robert P. George tears apart Kristof's historicist logic:

Although I ought to be used to it by now, I still find the parochialism of liberal secular elites stunning. Their small-minded preoccupation with sex and gender is, in its way, amusing. A pope abdicates for the first time in centuries, and what immediately pops into the mind of Nicholas Kristof and his ilk? Contraception, women’s ordination, and celibacy. Oy vey. 

Also amusing is his uncritical–indeed unthinking–embrace of Hegelian-Marxian certainty about the trajectory of history. “At some point, the church will [embrace the ideology of the New York Times editorial board]. It just will, you see. History is open to no other possibilities. It’s a done deal. Already determined. Kristof was no doubt prevented only by the character limit on Twitter from saying “the correlation of forces . . . .”