Charles Reid's strange diagnosis

Michael has again posted a Chuck Reid HuffPo column and, like several of Reid's other recent columns, the piece mixes some accurate reporting with some misguided assertions.  Reid describes the Holy Father as the "last 20th century pope," he writes, and notes that "what he never did, what he never understood  there was any need to do, was to open a serious and respectful dialogue with the secular world."  This is a very strange and, in any event, quite wrong statement.  One might start, for example, here. 

Of course, when it comes to misguided commentary on Pope Benedict's legacy, service, thought, and work, it could be a lot worse.  See, for example, Bill Keller's silly rant (translation:  "The Pope failed to understand that, as Pope, he should have changed the Church and her teachings in order to make them more congenial to my own views.").