It seems to me that His Holiness is having a hard time of it as of late.
Apparently, having run out of every other kind of human being to alienate, he’s had to turn against his own once again. I wonder, at what point will ole’ Benny answer the question, “What’s wrong with Catholicism?” with the response, “All those damned Catholics!” or, better yet, “Jesus.”
When he first took office back in 2005, he blamed the pedophile priest scandal on gay men sneaking into seminaries (Benny likes to assume that every gay man is a card-carrying member of NAMBLA). It struck me then that those sounded like awfully strange words, coming from a man in a sequined dress.
Before that, during his days as the head of the Inquisition, he presided over the silencing of Fr. Leonardo Boff, a liberation theologian who dared to suggest that the hierarchy of the church existed in order to empower the laity, not vice versa. For this, Boff was branded as a communist and eventually excommunicated. Galileo is spinning in his grave.
These days, the newest threat to Catholicism comes from another unexpected source: nuns. I can imagine Jon Lovitz in papal regalia, shouting, “That’s the ticket!”
Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has produced a fabulous column on Papa Benny’s latest witch hunt. Click the link below to read it for yourself:
If you’re into signing petitions, you can support this one at change.org:
Drawing from my years of experience working with the mentally ill and chemically dependent, I typically find that one is most insane when you think that you’re just fine and it’s everyone else that’s gone mad.
Having turned the spotlight of accusation on every other Catholic but himself, I think the rhetorical question, “Is the Pope Catholic?” is worth asking.
Hopping Hadrian's Wall 
Bravo, Barrett. CB and I visited Sisters of Guadeloupe a number of years ago on a retreat organized by the Weston Priory monks. The order had recently been investigated by the vatican. After arrriving at the mother house and demanding to see what they actually were doing, the perfumed papal emisary refused to walk the several muddy backcountry miles into the mountains to visit the sisters at a mission outpost. Hmm. Too much reality for them. Those sisters were gentle and fiercely brave at the same time.