Compass bearings on Catholicism?

[sawyl]

Interesting article on the The Golden Compass over at the LA Times. It's been a while since I read His Dark Materials, but I don't remember it being specifically anti-Catholic. Or rather, it was, but only incidentally. I seem to recall that, in Lyra's world, the Reformation had never happened, so Christianity is, de facto, Catholic — I think mentions at one point that Calvin was elected pope — so any anti-Catholicism is simply a side effect of Pullman's general attack on Christianity.