ROME (Reuters) - U.S. cardinals criticized on Wednesday snap judgments on Pope Benedict XVI, saying some media coverage had been "skewed" toward a mistaken caricature of the new Church leader as an iron-fisted conservative.
"I think we just have to be very careful about caricaturizing the Holy Father, and very simply putting labels on this man of the Church," Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles told reporters in Rome.
"I've already seen some headlines in our country doing that, and I think that's a mistake."
The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in one of the swiftest papal conclaves for a century stunned Vatican watchers who saw the stern defender of Catholic orthodoxy as too old, too cold and too divisive to succeed warmly regarded John Paul.
For liberal Catholics in the United States, hoping for a more progressive pope on issues like birth control and the role of women in the Church, Tuesday's election came as a shock.
"There is no reason to expect any change of course for the church when it comes to matters like birth control, priestly celibacy or homosexuality," said the New York Times, noting Ratzinger had been the Vatican's top doctrinal expert for 23 years.
But U.S. cardinals, speaking to journalists in Rome, praised the German-born Ratzinger, listing attributes including humility, intellect, kindness and likeability.
They also said he was very open to dialogue.
"I think that the vision that some have of the Holy Father as someone who is not a person of dialogue is really a skewed vision," said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 74, of Washington.
Cardinal Adam Maida from Detroit said while Ratzinger might not be perfect, he would successfully lead the world's 1.1 billion Catholics.
"I believe that Cardinal Ratzinger, who with all his gifts and talents, and even some of his shortcomings, will somehow be able to reach others because it will be the grace of God that ultimately touches the hearts and minds of people," he said.
By the way, copying and pasting from a site that has an opinion is NOT the same as formulating your open opinion or line of thought. In fact it's just the sort of someone-speaking-for-me bull that Megan and thousands like her don't like about Ratzinger's model of leadership. It reeks of his authoritarian childhood heroes' philosophy of memorization and regurgitation vs. independent thought.
Further to that, I suspect you'll get all defensive and post an original-thought rebuttal in the next hour or so. All I'd say to that is Too Little, Too Late spanky.
James, you're NOT serious are you? Quick, name one way to stop ~96% of all sexually transmitted HIV infections. One way that's almost never practiced in the catholic-influenced countries of the 3rd world.
