The New York Times has just jumped into the papal blogging fray with a blog of their own called "A Papal Discussion."

As if reacting to my complaint earlier this week about "updating the Rolodex" of Catholic commentators, the list of bloggers they have assembled is actually quite impressive. In addition to NY Times national religion correspondent Laurie Goodstein and Rome correspondent Ian Fisher, they have:

• Alejandro Bermudez, director of Catholic News Agency
• Colleen Carroll Campbell, author of The New Faithful
• Rev. James Martin, S.J., associate editor of America magazine
• Rabbi James Rudin, senior advisor for the American Jewish Committee
  
• Peter Steinfels, NY Times columnist (whose excellent article on papal news coverage I mentioned last week)
  
• Amy Welborn, popular Catholic blogger and author

This strikes me as a really well-rounded list -- nary a Frances Kissling in sight (though I am a little curious about Rabbi Rudin's presence; perhaps added for the ecumenical angle?). And while I doubt this group will agree on everything, there's a good representation of opinions here that will certainly make for interesting discussion.

So far today, Goodstein and Fisher have taken questions from readers regarding the pope's visit, and I've been impressed with their thoughtful responses. Comments on the blog from Times readers haven't been quite so even-handed, to put it mildly, so I encourage Inside Blog readers to check it out and add your two cents -- and pray for the contributors, while you're at it.