Zay Smith on blogs, and in lame humor attempt, suggests how to address the Pope

Veteran Chicago Sun-Times reporter Zay Smith recently began covering the blog beat. By his own admission, when he dove into the blog-o-sphere, Zay didn't know much about blogs.

From this Eric Zorn (who knows a lot about blogs) posting in April. (Free Chicago Tribune registration may be required):

It’s a little baffling when a sentient news consumer doesn’t know what Web logs are – they’re written and talked about all the time in the media. But it’s completely confounding when someone (Zay Smith) whose main job seems to be culling the news wires for odd and amusing items “has no idea” what they are and requires more than five minutes to find a definition.

Today's Zay's weekly blog column discussed FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a group that has been extremely supportive of Thomas Klocek and his free speech battle with DePaul.

Nothing about DePaul or Klocek in Zay's column today. But in his dogged research, Zay discovered the Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club site.

Sayeth Zay:

Take a bow

The Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club elog at ratzingerfanclub.com correctly points out that mail to Pope Benedict XVI should be addressed to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Vatican City State, 00120, Italy, and that e-mails should be addressed to benedictxvi@vatican.va, but fails, for some reason, to point out that any letter or e-mail to Pope Benedict XVI should close: "Prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness and imploring the favor of its apostolic benediction, I have the honor to be, Very Holy Father, with the deepest veneration of Your Holiness, the most humble and most obedient servant and son (daughter)."
Which is why His Holiness receives so few postcards.

Not only does Zay not know much about blogs, he doesn't seem to know much about the sensibilities of his readership, many of whom are Catholic.

UPDATE: There are some grains of truth in Zay's article. From the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, in Italy when writing to the Holy Father.

According to the New Advent it's proper to end a letter to the Pope, "Prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, I have the honour to profess myself, with the most profound respect, Your Holiness's most humble servant."

Not sure where the other stuff comes from. None of it comes from the Raztinger Fan Club site. In the New Advent Encylopedia, there are no specific ways in English speaking countries to address the Pope.