The time worn rhetorical question “Is the Pope Catholic?” took on new meaning this week as The Times newspaper was forced to apologise for calling the late Pope John Paul II the ‘first non-Catholic pope in 450 years’.
The paper’s corrections box reads:
“Karol Wojtyla [the birth name of Pope John Paul II] was referred to in Saturday’s Credo column as ‘the first non-Catholic pope for 450 years’. This should, of course, have read ‘non-Italian’. We apologise for the error.