Finally! At last! Yeah!

NPR has broken the Religious Story of the Year:

Catholic Church Joins Blogosphere; Pope Urges Priests To Blog

Because, you see, the Pope + Clergy = "the Church," and the hundreds (if not thousands) of Catholic blogs run by lay people such as Amy Welborn, Mark Shea, and a host of others don't count. Never mind that priests such as Fr. Z and others also have very popular blogs. The piece, contrary to its silly headline, then states:

That's not to say that priests aren't already on the Web.

"If people live in cyberspace then the Church ought to be in cyberspace" says Father Brian Paulson S.J. a Jesuit priest in Chicago. Paulson will soon head up a community of about 80 priests and seminarians, some of whom blog, and one of his concerns with the Pope's mandate is quality. He worries that blogs that don't pay close enough attention to the Church's teachings or are written poorly will turn people away rather than attract them.

Yes, well, I fully understand Fr. Paulson's concern about National "Catholic" Reporter. But I'm also a little concerned that NPR seems stuck in 2001 when it comes to Catholic blogging and is apparently incapable of spending more than twelve seconds "researching" the internet for Catholic blogs. Why, if I didn't know better, I'd be concerned about the level of journalistic effort and professionalism when it comes to reporting stories big and small about the Catholic Church...