The New York Times gets ... well, credible

The New York Times has a blog called "A Papal Discussion" covering Pope Benedict's trip:

http://thepope.blogs.nytimes.com/

What is notable about this development is the panel of contributors they have invited:

• Alejandro Bermudez is the director of Catholic News Agency, which provides fine coverage of things Catholic. I've been using their material extensively for years.
• Colleen Carroll Campbell works for the Ethics and Public Policy Center, which is a good outfit, and wrote "The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy."
• Rev. James Martin, S.J. is an associated editor of America. I can't say that I particularly agree with most editorial positions America has taken, but hopefully his commentary is accurate.
• Rabbi James Rudin, I presume for ecumenical reasons. Hopefully he appreciates Pope Benedict XVI's long tradition of authentic dialogue with and respect of Jews.
• Peter Steinfels, is a NYT religion columnist, and as Margaret Cabaniss noted on the Inside Blog, recently wrote a very illuminating article on papal news coverage.
• Last but not least ... St. Blog's own Amy Welborn! Who migrated in the last year from her flagship Open Book blog to her new one, Charlotte was Both.

Really, I don't think they could have chosen a better representative of St. Blogs than Amy.

On the New York Times staff, it's Ian Fisher and Laurie Goodstein. Laurie I've heard is normally balanced.

I hope this turns out to be as much of a sign of progress as it could be. Finally, mainstream media organizations are realizing that their coverage of things Catholic is lacking, and they're reaching out to fix it.