When you think of a bigoted anti-homosexual non-profit organization that routinely allows its adult male leaders to sexually abuse the boys entrusted to the organization's care, you usually run screaming from the room because now you can't get the image of Pope Ratzinger out of your mind. Oh no he is wearing the bejeweled dress with the red Prada slippers again, and the Santa hat, oh no. But this story is different. This story is about the Boy Scouts of America.
A Southern California judge has ordered the Boy Scouts of America to release two decades of internal files detailing sexual abuse allegations [...] The ruling [...]
"I thought of the smells the Pope would smell when praying at the Grotto of Lourdes." —Italian perfumier Silvana Casoli explains the creative process behind the new scent she has made to be worn exclusively by Pope Benedict XVI.
"Church officials believe that the Polish pope, who himself suffered from the condition, interceded for the miraculous cure of Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, a Frenchwoman in her late forties. She has said her illness inexplicably disappeared two months after John Paul II's death, after she and her fellow nuns had prayed to him. Church-appointed doctors agreed that there was no medical explanation for the curing of the nun, although last year there were some doubts about the validity of the miracle. A Polish newspaper said that a doctor who scrutinised the nun's case had concluded that she might have been suffering not from Parkinson's, but from a nervous disorder from [...]
If you ever wanted to see what the Pope looks like in a baseball cap, well, now's your chance.
"Benedict XVI, like many of his predecessors, is often called on to confront very difficult situations…. The way in which he responds is remarkably efficient, at least for all those who are not guided by totally hostile sentiments, and it is efficient both for its humility and sincerity and for the sound reasoning of the pope. The pastoral letter to the Irish is only the most recent example of his great charisma…. Our people know how to differentiate between human error, and history is full of this, and the huge fruits of goodness which have come and continue to come from our Christian roots." -As the growing outrage in Europe [...]
My usual Friday attack of Let This Week Be Over Syndrome came early this week (if you're scoring at home, here's exactly when it happened), and I'll try to gut it out and take you through the rest of the day, but man am I finding it hard to care. Still, here are a couple of things you might be interested in.
Joseph Alois Ratzinger-also known as "Joey The Hat," "Benny 10-6," and "The Pope"-is facing criticism from Israelis who are bothered by a speech he gave yesterday at Yad Vashem, the country's national Holocaust memorial. The Israelis are upset that the Pope did not apologize for the Catholic Church's role during the genocide.
"Something was missing," said Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau. "There was no mention of the Germans or the Nazis who participated in the butchery, nor a word of regret. If not an apology, then an expression of remorse."
