Why so much coverage of the new pope?

[SherlockHolmes]

Can't believe the BBC with their Breaking News. Disrupting the schedule for something that barely anyone gives a toss about.

Roughly 8% of the UK is Catholic so surely a piece on the evening news is plenty?

Ditto US political stories.

There is a button on your TV/radio that turns it off if you're not bothered.

Are you interested in every single item of news that is covered every day? This is an historic occasion, not just religious BTW, as the Pope is Head of State of the Vatican, so it's similar to Trump being elected for example, except the voters in the Pope's case are the cardinals!

Catholicism is a huge world religion and has enormous influence, particularly in South and Central America. It is also played big part in European and world history.

It had one leader and always has had, a single apostolic line so again, unusual and notable.

Don't watch then.

I’m not a Catholic, but I’m interested. It’s an important world event. Life would be so dull if we only followed things that directly affect us.

This

Are you really that insular, OP? All these events affect the world, even a new pope!

agree

There’s more than a billion catholics in the world. The popes personal viewpoints become church policy. It has real impact if the pope is conservative or moderate in his views.

It is really important to a lot of people across the world. I am not Catholic but watched the announcement live and found it genuinely quite moving. You don't have to read about it. Go and read / watch something you like 🤷‍♀️

Rude.
I’m not Catholic. I’m not religious. But this Papal election was an important one for inclusivity, and I for one was interested.

I'm fully invested (lol) though I will admit to a bit of an eye roll at the 'WE WILL BE LIVE FROM THE VATICAN AT 8AM' stuff.

I think it does affect us as well. There aren't many religious leaders acknowledged by an entire globe. There are some highly political elements still as the pope still has temporal power.

Well it makes a change from hearing about Trump.

Why should there not be a lot of coverage of the new Pope? It's MASSIVE news! As pps have said, feel free to switch off the TV! 🙄

And how RUDE saying no-one gives a toss about this. What an arrogant and narrow minded attitude!

Hasn’t it always been the case that a new pope gets intense media coverage? Obviously as technology advances it may get a bit more intrusive eg bbc news pop ups on your phone etc

If you want insular, island - mentality UK centric news, you could try switching to GB News.

I think you'll find many people do in fact give a toss.
Go watch something else if you're not bothered
I who am of faith watched with my agnostic husband. He enjoyed watching a key world event taking place.
Your username is perhaps misplaced because I don't think it takes Sherlock Holmes to understand how this would be of interest to not only people of the Catholic faith.

As a Catholic I'm loving it and I truly appreciate the interest and respect from non-Catholics on Mumsnet. Thank you all.

I'm not sure you're aware, but other countries exist and sone of us care what happens in them, and what affects them.

A radical notion to some.

Apart from being of importance to Catholics around the world, the appointment of a new Pope is important since he can have a profound impact on worldwide political events. This can affect us all therefore it is an issue which the BBC and other news outlets should cover.

It's a big event, you can avoid the coverage if you don't want to see it. I've seen hardly anything so far and will probably look it up tomorrow to check it out.

There’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics worldwide, if you can’t understand that this is an event of importance and magnitude there are several daytime TV programs for you to enjoy.

I’m an ardent republican but I’d fully expect TV coverage to break for news of a change in the monarchy that only affects this country.

Oh dear, some people are so defensive.

No one I know has more than a passing interest in who the head of a religious group is.

My point is that it doesn't warrant endless coverage on the main TV channel. It's part of the news, that's all.

Would we be giving this amount of coverage to the new Islamic or Sikh leader? There must be millions of those all over the world too.

There isn’t a central leader in either Islam (which has lots of different sects) or Sikhism.

Yep.

I was interested too, I switched to watch the live BBC coverage for a few mins when the alert popped up. I’m not religious in the slightest, but it’s a fairly significant world event and I am a sucker for pomp and ceremony too.