It would explain why the NYT hates the Catholic Church

-it's their competition.
NYT's new editor says that in the household of her youth, the Times substituted for religion, adding "[i]f the Times said it, it was the absolute truth.”
After the demise of the World Herald Journal Tribune, we read the Times in our house, too.  Though to us it was just a newspaper, and we wished that it had comics. 
See also James Taranto's take. (link fixed)