HYPOCRISY

The Roman Catholic pope doesn't want Caroline Kennedy as the United States Ambassador to the Vatican. And he doesn't want the University of Notre Dame to let President Obama speak at the university. The reason? Both Kennedy and Obama are opposed to criminalising abortion, and are supporters of stem-cell medical research.

Jesus, of course, never said anything about abortion or stem-cell medical research. He did say a lot about hypocrisy, however. He condemned hypocrites and hypocrisy five hundred times for every time he mentioned all other evils put together.

It seems strange that the pope doesn't want Caroline Kennedy in Rome, and doesn't want Barack Obama at Notre Dame; after all, he invited the conservative English bishop Williamson back into Rome, though Williamson insisted that the Nazi holocaust didn't happen--and holocaust denial is a serious crime in the pope's native Germany. And though the pope doesn't want Kennedy in Rome, or Obama speaking at Notre Dame, he has Bernard Cardinal Law in Rome, in charge of the basilica of Sta. Maria Maggiore, a major church whose pastor serves directly under the pope, and reports only to the pope.

Pope Benedict's predecessor installed Cardinal Law at Sta. Maria Maggiore to get him out of Boston, where he was an indictable co-conspiritor and accessory after the fact in a number of child abuse cases against priests in his diocese. These priests were long-time molestors of little boys. For years, Cardinal Law had moved known pederasts from Catholic parish to Catholic parish, and from Catholic school to Catholic school, as their crimes had been uncovered. And when the scandal broke, ten years ago, Cardinal Law blocked or tried to block the prosecution of his priests for their serious and repeated sexual crimes against little boys.

So Cardinal Law was whisked away to Rome. He is safe there.

Of course the Roman Catholic Church hates homosexuality--except among the clergy.

"Oh, ye HYPOCRITES," Jesus would have said.

The Catholic Church has a long history of priests and bishops abusing little boys--and not just by seducing and raping them. Every time one listens to beautiful old Church music, one should remember that the soprano parts were all written for little boys--and castrati: men who were castrated (for the glory of god) as pre-pubescent boys, so they wouldn't lose their beautiful soprano voices. The Catholic Church didn't allow women in its choirs--and if you watched any of the Easter celebrations on television this year, you would have noticed that the Vatican choirs are still all male. But presumably there are no castrati among them.

And Easter: who among the Roman Catholic heirarchy remembers that Jesus was born in a stable, not in a palace? Do they remember Jesus saying how hard it will be for rich men to enter heaven, or his telling a would-be follower "give up all you have if you would follow me." Did Jesus wear gold shoes, as the pope does? Did Jesus sit on a gold throne, as the pope does, with people bowing to him, while he blesses the poor? Is ostentatious wealth Christian?

"Oh, ye HYPOCRITES!" Jesus would have said.