How is the New York Times like the Catholic Church?

Departing Executive Editor of the paper Bill Keller — who was raised Catholic — has a provocative thought or two:

“My parents took their faith very seriously — especially my mother, who had the fervor of a convert (from Episcopalian). My brothers and I had nuns and priests as our teachers through high school, and I look back on that education with real gratitude. I’m now what my friend Dan Barry calls a ‘collapsed Catholic’ — beyond lapsed — but you never really extricate yourself from your upbringing…

…I run into readers who believe The Times is a place directed from on high. The truth is that our priesthood of journalists operates with great autonomy, and our congregation of readers makes up its own mind — all as it should be. In the unlikely event that the pope ever invited me for tea, we’d probably have stories to swap about the practical limits of authority. ‘Absolute monarchs’ indeed!”