Christiane Amanpour made this same mistake today on KFWB at about 12:30pm... "first non-catholic pope in many centuries" - she probably meant "NON-ITALIAN"

CNN.com


Is the Pope a Catholic?

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Jonathan-Green/Festival-of-water-just-dont-go-in-the-river/2005/02/09/1107890272746.html?oneclick=true

And speaking of popes, some little misdeeds can haunt you for life. It would be remiss to let tomorrow's final Today Show appearance by veteran host Steve Liebmann pass without recalling an incident from the dark vaults of 1978.

Back then, Steve was doing breakfast radio on 2SM in Sydney - a station owned, coincidentally, by the Catholic Church.

News gathering was then a primitive art, one unblessed by the internet or 24-hour cable news. While Liebmann was on air, word came through that a certain Polish cardinal had just been made the new Pope.

Liebmann breathlessly announced the news to his audience, adding: "It is the first time in many centuries that we've had a non-Catholic Pope." Phones went crazy. Producers went crazy. Steve went crazy and quickly corrected the gaffe on-air.

He then went to the tape machine that logged the broadcast, took out scissors and did a fast edit on that particular 30 seconds, sensing that otherwise it would come to haunt him through endless Christmas blooper reels. Almost got away with it.

A Black or Hispanic Pope??? How about a Jew?

This article is from 2003 - worth reading, I think...


Papal Chase - Will the next pope be black, Hispanic, American, a Jew? By Steven Waldman