Here’s a fantastic post from Terry Mattingly at Get Religion, in anticipation of you-know-what:

You see, journalists who cover religion are all waiting for the arrival of the tidal wave that is a papal visit, which is kind of the Olympic games of the Godbeat, or, better yet, our version of a national political convention. And, above all, we are waiting to find out what the “real” issue will be for this papal visit.
You know. The. Real. Issue.
We all know that the pope will talk about things that do not really matter, like prayer, Jesus, confession, the Eucharist and all those other religious doctrines. But there will have to be a “real” issue or two in there to cover, which means, of course, anything that can be seen as affecting politics and, thus, real life.
If he talks about poverty and health, that will impact discussions of national health care, which may be seen as a covert hint to Catholic swing voters in Ohio that they can, under Vatican II, vote for Bill and Hillary Clinton with a clear conscience despite their records on other life and death issues. You see how it works? Heaven help us all if he mentions the environment. Even if he speaks on the nature of the priesthood, that text will be parsed for language that will have an impact on discussion of gay rights. Will he meet with the presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church? Same thing.

At Pope2008, Tim Drake has coined the acronym (watch out, Episcopalians!) WOCHA: (Women’s Ordination, Contraception, Homosexuality, Abortion) – for the media template to keep a watch out for.