Nitpicking....by K J S Chatrath

I am generally unhappy with the news reporting and poor editing in a number of English language Indian newspapers. I had nothing much to do yesterday so I took out a small news item and started fact checking the logic and language.

The news item that I took up is from the Times of India, Chandigarh, May 9, 2025:

I may add a caveat here that though I am an atheist,  but I hold all religions and the adherents of those religions in great respect.

Now let me start with the heading.  It says: “Prevost 1st American Pope in Church’s 2k-yr history”. My first problem is with the use of the word ‘American’ as I think  it should have been from the ‘ United States of America’. Americas, as we know, consist of the north, the central and the south Americas comprising of various sovereign, independent nations.  USA is one of those countries. USA is not America, but a part of North America.

While in conversational mode one may use ‘America’ for ‘USA’, in formal written mode, it should be ‘USA’.

Now, conceding that the news item refers to USA, the heading turns out to be incorrect. USA got constituted in 1776 and therefore His Holiness Pope Leo XIV is the first Pope from USA since 1776,  that is since 225 years after USA came into being. Yes, Roman Catholic Church has a history of 2k years but Pope from USA- is only the first in 226 years.

Incidentally His Holiness Pope Leon is also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, as the newspaper tells us. 

But no, it does not end here. His Holiness Pope Francis, who become the Pope in 2013 was from Argentina, which is very much a part of South America and the Americas.

Did you say nit-picking?