The Vatican Song and Dance Show

There were two articles in the paper today that I just had to blog about now:

The Vatican are telling bishops to report abuse to actual authorities: ie the police. First of all... DUH! Why should bishops be have to be told this? Oh right, because there's been a lot of child abuse BY bishops and priests. Phew, with out this word from the Vatican, they might not have known what to do.

But the kicker is, and the emphasis is mine: "should report clerical sex abuse to police if required by law." If? IF? IF!!??!!??!! It's not like child abuse may be considered morally wrong in our society and should be reported from any kind of conscience stand, no, it only needs to be reported if it is against the law. But, hey, does that mean 'ignorance of the law' is an out? "Sorry officer, I was thinking of saying something, considering that this is bad, but, hey, it's not like I knew it was against the law or anything!" I really hope the 'if' was slack journalistic writing. I tried looking at the Vatican website, but had no idea where to find anything.

In other news... the Vatican forgives the Beatles! I'm sure this was not at all done in any attempt to hope that Beatle-mania would overwhelm any other focus currently on the Vatican. That would be extremely cynical and manipulative and it's not like the Vatican wouldn't do that... I mean would do that... yeah, that's what I mean...

And, hey, just 40 years after the band's breakup! That's quicker that Galileo's 340 years after his death! If they keep this up, the Vatican might be known as a religion that actually considers forgiveness as one of its tenets... better tread carefully guys... [And, of course, the Vatican's forgiveness is what everyone has been waiting for, considering they have such a morality stance...]

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