Pat Robertson challenges Young Earth Creationism

[MikeH]

There are two Archbishops of Armagh, one CoI, one Catholic.

You can basically tell which is which by whether they have an Irish or English sounding name. eg. The current two are Alan Harper and Seán Brady...

Never heard of anyone qualifying any Bishop's title in a news story by stating which sect they are from.

[kentonio]

Thinking about it more, I wonder if (in the UK at least) the archbishop thing gets associated with anglicans more because of the prominence of the big English ones like Canterbury and York.

[MikeH]

Archbishop of Westminster is the leading UK Catholic bishop I think. IIRC they specifically chose titles that didn't duplicate CofE titles in England. Obviously not the case in NI.

[kentonio]

Bizarrely I've barely heard of the Archbishop of Westminster however, whereas the Archbishop of York and the Archbishop of Canterbury seem fairly prominent. Maybe the catholics are just too damn ninja.

[Felch]

I don't actually know why, but archbishop over here is far more associated with Anglicans than with Catholics, while bishop is almost always associated with catholics. Strange but true..

Maybe because you're in Britain, where the CoE is the majority faith? Sort of like what I've been saying all along?

Ben's point, and I think it's valid, is that when there is a possibility of confusion the writer should make sure to clarify these sorts of details. I don't think that everybody should always assume that every Archbishop is Catholic, but I do think that some people might. And I think that a good writer would be sure to explain what religion a religious leader is a part of. It's a relevant part of the story.

EDIT: This sort of clarification is especially important when there are two churches with identical titles.

[kentonio]

Ben's point, and I think it's valid, is that when there is a possibility of confusion the writer should make sure to clarify these sorts of details. I don't think that everybody should always assume that every Archbishop is Catholic, but I do think that some people might. And I think that a good writer would be sure to explain what religion a religious leader is a part of. It's a relevant part of the story.

The author should have been specific, but I think the automatic assumption that the subject was catholic was a bit of a stretch.

EDIT: This sort of clarification is especially important when there are two churches with identical titles.

Yeah, very true.