Two headlines today are so delicious, they’re fattening: Robert Mugabe backs David Cameron’s Conservatives and Vatican hit by gay sex scandal. In all my wildest imaginings I could not have hoped for stories like these to ever present themselves, let alone for them to appear on the same day. A murderous tyrant endorses the Tories? Male prostitutes procured, some of them said to be priests-in-training and choristers, at the heart of the virulently anti-gay Roman Catholic Church? One can only wonder what viciously satirical and rip-roaringly funny spoof news site The Daily Mash will make of these. I wait with anticipatory delight....

He wants to come here and talk about natural law, but strangely omits the yogic flying element, yet sees it fit that we the British tax payer should shell out £20m for the privilege of him telling us we are wrong. Well EasyJet have offered to fly him here for 'nothing', diddly squat, gratis*.So I think we the British public should put our heads together on how Pope Benny can talk to his...

I rarely buy newspapers, but while I was out shopping today I bought the Guardian. While reading it, I came across an article about Pope Benedict and his remarks on a recent meeting with the British R.C. Bishops about how they should unleash their ‘missionary zeal’ on the UK in an effort to sort out our ‘unjust’ equality legislation that prevent people from adhering to the tenets of their religion in their every day lives. At first, I genuinely thought (bless me and my optimistic innocence!) that he was preaching the sort of tolerance and acceptance which is such a part of my Christian faith (for the sake of clarity I should state that I’m a protestant, although I believe that these are at the core of the whole Christian faith). But no. Apparently, the...

The United Kingdom has made great strides in bringing equality to it's citizens. Whilst I might not agree with exactly how it's done sometimes (I'm big on ensuring legislation defends free speech), I still wholeheartedly support the reasons for equality legislation. This is quite simply about ensuring all citizens are equal before public institutions. This has come despite the usual religious opposition to the liberation of women and the GLBT community. On the one hand they defend the laws protected them against religious hatred and on the other they attack laws protecting those who wish to live their lives in a way they disapprove. This sort of hypocrisy is to be expected. But the Pope, who expects us to fork out £20 million for his upcoming state visit, has crossed a line. When...

So the Pope is saying that the equality bill defies 'natural law' that may be his belief but it is also an oxymoron.Natural law, think about it, what does that mean? Look at the book of Genesis to see what natural law actually means in the bible. There is lying, fratricide, stealing, cheating on wives etc. it gets so bad that at one point God wipes out mankind bar one man, his three sons...

I was fascinated to learn (via Andrew Brown) that the Vatican has trademarked the Pope. They are apparently anxious "to protect the figure and personal identity of the Pope from the unauthorized use of his name and/or the papal coat of arms for ends and activities which have little or nothing to do with the Catholic Church." The announcement bans the unofficial "use of anything referring directly to the person or office of the Supreme Pontiff." They even want assert control over the adjective "Pontifical". Brown predicts that the move might backfire, with "a rash of deliberately mocking Pope figures all over the net, as people see a chance to cock a snook at him." I never needed such an excuse myself, but since it's Christmas, here's a totally unauthorised picture of His Heiliness in...

Article by Nick Pisa from The Telegraph “Pope John Paul II regularly whipped himself in a sign of “remorse for his sins”, a nun has claimed. The Pope, who died five years ago, is being considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church. As part of the Vatican’s investigation thousands of documents have been collected and examined by officials from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Among them is the testimony of Tobiana Sobodka, a Polish nun of the Sacred Heart of Jesus order, who worked for Pope John Paul in his private Vatican apartments and at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome. Sister Sobodka said: “Several times he (Pope John Paul) would put himself through bodily penance. “We would hear it – we were in the next room at Castel...

The Vatican has hosted a five-day conference gathering astronomers, physicists, biologists and other experts to discuss the budding field of astrobiology – the study of the origin of life and its existence elsewhere in the cosmos. The Rev Jose Gabriel Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, said the possibility of alien life raises “many philosophical and theological implications” Hhmm, quite agree. Lets start with the notion that Man is created in God’s image Source . . ....

In a move that would be frowned upon were he a football manager, Pope Benny, has been in discussions with Anglican Bishops – behind the ArchBishop of Cantebury’s back – to tempt them to come and join his club. It is believed many Anglican Bishops upset with women and gay men being admitted to the priesthood are considering the move but are awaiting full details of the transfer package on offer. The Rt Rev John Hind, the Bishop of Chichester is one who has announced he would love to pray for Team Vatican. If he ‘moves’ to Rome it is thought others will follow his lead Read more here . . ....

Below, you will find our final fringe event at conference, Beyond Twitter. MP Jo Swinson joined LDV regular Mark Pack and MySociety’s Richard Pope to debate the future of public online engagement with politics. We still have one more fringe event in the cans ready for sound processing, but I won’t be able to bring that to you just yet....

Original Home Page All Contents of Site – Index Comment at end 28th July, 2009 You bet your sense of moral rectitude they wouldn’t! Pope condemns Bible ‘vandalism’ exhibition The Pope has condemned as “disgusting” a Scottish art exhibition which invites visitors to deface a copy of the Bible. Pope Benedict XVI oversees a vespers service for St. Peter and St. Paul's day in the St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica in Rome on June 28, 2009. The pontiff said recent scientific tests on what are believed to be the remains of the Apostle Paul 'seem to conclude' that they do indeed belong to the Roman Catholic saint. AFP PHOTO/ Filippo MONTEFORTE (Photo credit should read FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images) See Telegraph report: The exhibit, Untitled 2009,...

Press reports are saying that Former Hitler Youth Movement member and current pretender to the post of of Jesus Christ's infallible representative right here on earth, Pope Benedict the umpteenth (previously known as Joseph Alois Ratzinger), has taken a tumble broken his wrist.Sad to say, no mention's been made of the pompous, privileged, pampered, poxy,...

The Pope's long-awaited (by some) new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Love in truth) is out. According to some accounts, it was delayed because of difficulties in translating some neologisms into Latin. That may be true: the Latin text isn't available yet on the Vatican website. I was hoping to be able to tell you what the Papal scribes determined was the correct Latin rendering of "credit crunch" and the like. Traditionally, they have tended to go for the most long-winded translations possible.Some encyclicals are epoch-making (1968's Humanae Vitae, for example, which reaffirmed the church's opposition to birth control) but a quick read through of this latest document reveals little of interest. It's long, rather boring and intensely unoriginal, covering a lot of ground without...

Champions League Final ref gets blessing from the Pope When the Pope’s not busy urging AIDS sufferers to shun condoms, he loves nothing better than blessing referees. So Manchester United and Barca go head-to-head tonight safe in the knowledge that referee Massimo Busacca has got the big guy upstairs on his side/conscience. Either that or he was [...]...

If you hadn’t realised this is the end times, then reading stories like this in the news should help you realise it …. Article from here - “JERUSALEM, May 20 (UPI) — A council for Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation will be housed at the site of the altar built to mark Roman peace, the mayor of Rome said Tuesday. Gianni Alemanno made the announcement after a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. The office is to be at the Ara Pacis, built 2,000 years ago by the Emperor Augustus in honor of the Pax Romana. ”The idea is to set up a permanent office at the Ara Pacis, providing a permanent, complete council tasked with working towards reconciliation,” Alemanno said. Alemanno planned to discuss the proposal with...

Hear today that the Pope is to have a Facebook account. Sure to have a lot of friends requests...... Pope Benedict also has a website called pope2you.net which includes links to the Vatican YouTube, i-phone and WikiCath the Catholic Wiki.... Comments...

Pope Benedict XVI is taking his religious message digital when today Pope2You.net is launched. Catholic owners of the iPhone, or users of Facebook, will be able to download and install applications that allow them to track Il Papa with videos of his travels and send Pope e-Cards with ‘the good news’ on them. In a month that has [...]...

Pope Benedict XVI has preached against hatred and prejudice, not remotely appreciating the irony of him doing so: “I urge people of goodwill in both communities to repair the damage that has been done, and in fidelity to our common belief in one God, the father of the human family, to work to build bridges and find the way to a peaceful coexistence,” he said. “Let everyone reject the destructive power of hatred and prejudice, which kills men’s souls before it kills their bodies.” Says the arch homophobe who says that condoms are part of the problem in dealing with HIV, and that gay people are responsible for environmental destruction. Quite, quite mad....

Excerpts from an Article by ABE SELIG AND JERUSALEM POST STAFF from here, May 12 2009 “After meeting the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, and praying at the Western Wall on Tuesday, Pope Benedict XVI arrived for a historic meeting with the chief rabbis at Heichal Shlomo, next to the capital’s Great Synagogue, and agreed that the Catholic Church will cease all missionary activity among Jews. In his welcoming address, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger thanked the pope for his announcement, calling it an “historic agreement and, “for us, an immensely important message.” Metzger also congratulated the pope on his arrival to “our holy land – the land to which we prayed to return during 2,000 years of exile… And, with...

“The Pope has said he never, never was a member of the Hitler Youth, which was a movement of fanatical volunteers,” Franco Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman has said, claiming that the young Joseph Ratzinger had served in an auxiliary air defence squadron “that had nothing to do with Nazism or Nazi ideology.” However, the Pope has said himself in past interviews that prior to serving as a Wehrmacht anti-aircraft gunner he had been conscripted, along with so many other German boys of his age, into the Hitler Youth, in which he had served reluctantly….  in a series of interviews in the 1996 book Salt of the Earth, the Pope, then still a cardinal, said that he had been drafted into the Hitler Youth. “When the compulsory Hitler Youth was introduced in 1941, my brother was...

Any thoughts? Posted in False Prophets, Israel, News, Politics, Pope, Roman Catholic, Zionism Tagged: christianity, religion...

An article in Time about Ratzo's trip to the Middle East has the following opening paragraph:Under Pope Benedict XVI's reign, the Vatican dossier on Islam could be entitled: "Regensburg, and Everything After." Regensburg was the professor Pope's landmark 2006 discourse at his former university that included a nasty historical citation about the prophet Mohammed and provocatively asked if Islam lacks reason, making it inherently prone to violence. The worldwide protests among Muslims, including a handful of church burnings and the killing of a nun, forced the Pope to quickly change his approach, and soften his tone.Which is true enough. His comments since he arrived in Jordan been respectful to the point of gushing - and, given the tendency of some people in the region to blow things up...

Article by Jack Khoury, from here, 4th May 2009  “President Shimon Peres is urging the government to yield control of key Christian holy sites to the Vatican, a position that is believed to be opposed by Interior Minister Eli Yishai. The Vatican’s longstanding demand that Israel transfer sovereignty of key Christian sites to the control of the Holy See has created dissension among senior officials in Jerusalem. The Interior Ministry has vowed to retain control of the sites, calling relinquishment a “sacrifice” of Israeli sovereignty. “This matter is under the minister’s authority, and he is not prepared to sacrifice Israeli sovereignty, even if it is only symbolic,” Yishai’s spokesman Roi Rachmanovitch said. Peres is pressing the government...

Newly recruited Catholic Tony Blair has attacked the Pope’s stance on homosexuality and offered constructive suggestions on how the Roman Catholic Church can move forward: The Pope and the Vatican have an “entrenched attitude” towards homosexuality which is less tolerant than the views of ordinary Catholics, Tony Blair says in comments published today. The former prime minister, who converted to Catholicism shortly after leaving office two years ago, said he disagreed with the Pope’s stance on gay rights and controversially suggested that the Church should reform itself along similar lines to how he re-organised the Labour Party. “Organised religions face the same dilemma as political parties when faced with changed circumstances,” he said. “You...

Tony Blair thinks that the Pope is wrong on homosexuality. Tony Blair, who has been a Roman Catholic already for more than a year, tells the Pope how things have to be: Tony Blair has challenged the “entrenched” attitudes of the Pope on homosexuality, and argued that it is time for him to “rethink” his views. Speaking to the gay magazine Attitude, the former Prime Minister, himself now a Roman Catholic, said that he wanted to urge religious figures everywhere to reinterpret their religious texts to see them as metaphorical, not literal, and suggested that in time this would make all religious groups accept gay people as equals. Asked about the Pope’s stance, Mr Blair blamed generational differences and said: “We need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of...

Given the Pope’s recent comment that condoms can increase risk of catching Aids, manufacturers have voluntarily agreed to add a ‘health’ warning to their product – in much the same way that cigarettes carry a Government Health Warning http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVqEvci...

Pope Benedict and the condoms cartoon caricature © Matt Buck Hack cartoons One from the Hack Cartoons archive. Related Posts:Pope - ery - being a cartoon caricature of the Pope BenedictGood idea cartoonBrave little BelgiumProblems in being usefulDrawing Gordon...

The Catholic Church has a well known position on the use of condoms: it doesn't approve. You may think that's a crazy policy - I, as it happens, think it's a crazy policy - but it is hardly likely that the pope is going to change it off the top of his head while on a plane bound for Cameroon. So when a French journalist asked him about the policy - noting that it was "often considered unrealistic and ineffective" - it's unlikely that he expected anything other than a clear defence of the church's view. Which is, more or less, what he got. Benedict began by noting the good work done by religious orders before adding (my translation):I would say that one cannot overcome the problem of AIDS merely with slogans. If there is not the spirit, if the Africans do not help themselves, you...

The Vatican has revised the Pope’s ignorant comments on condoms and their usefulness against HIV/AIDS: On Tuesday he told reporters accompanying him on his trip to Africa that Aids was a “tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”. Taken aback by outrage worldwide, the Holy See altered the Pope’s remark yesterday to read that condoms merely “risked” aggravating the problem. The Vatican website published an edited text of the Pope’s comments the day after a question-and-answer sesion on his flight to Cameroon. It was a question from a French reporter that elicited an unqualified response about condoms. By introducing the word “risks” the Vatican softened the...

Because, you know, the Pope never makes me cross. First of all was the story of Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, the Archbishop of Recife’s decision to excommunicate a woman who helped her daughter get an abortion. The daughter was nine. She needed an abortion because her Catholic stepfather raped her. The rapist was not excommunicated. The Vatican supported all of this, so the only way these actions make any sense is if the Vatican considers abortion worse than raping a nine-year-old girl. And that nearly makes sense, except that the girl would probably have died in childbirth, so even if you consider her twin fœti ‘people’ you still have to be pretty warped to expect her to die for the crime of being raped. (Warped, or Muslim.) After that, the Vatican calmed down a little and...

In his first full day in Africa as Pope, Benedict XVI continues in his stance against condoms (the Johnnies of the piece) as a way to stem the HIV/AIDS epidemic ravaging the continent. He said he'd come with a 'message of hope' but where is the hope for the 22 million across Africa who are already affected, or their wives and families.The Catholic Church is adamant that education of...

Peter Brookes Cartoon in today's Times points out a serious story of the Roman Catholic Church's attitude to Africa and the frisson over how to handle the AIDS epidemic that is sweeping that continent. I hope to write more about that later in the meantime enjoy Mr Brookes'...

The backlash against Benedict is continuing: The Vatican’s stance is not simply irresponsible; it is immoral. African countries, as some of the most under-developed in the world, will arguably suffer the worst consequences of the “new” global challenges – climate change and the global economic downturn. The “old” ones also have not gone anywhere – severe poverty, malaria, the brain-drain, poor health, education and infrastructure, bad and corrupt leadership, civil war and genocide. The last thing Africans need is to be told that religion, the last vessel of hope for many, demands that they ignore one of the very few things they are able to do to help themselves. It’s unbelievable that a man with no experience in sexual affairs, and who puts...

He’s brought a Holocaust-denying bishop back from excommunication, he’s blamed gay people for climate change, and now Josef Ratzinger says that condoms are part of the problem in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa: Benedict had never directly addressed condom use. He has said that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against Aids. The Vatican encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease. “You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the Pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon, where he will begin a seven-day pilgrimage on the continent. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.“ Anyone keeping tabs on numbers self-identifying as Catholic in...

It’s now finally official, the Pope causes AIDS. On his first visit to Africa, Pope (Ratty) Benedict XVI told journalists that AIDS “is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems“. What was that now? Africa is a tremendously religious place with over 135 million Catholics hanging on his every word. However, these comments not only are unhelpful, uneducated and wrong; they are also killing people. Unfortunately there is no chance the comments will receive the worldwide condemnation they deserve due to the continued Governmental cowardice in confronting dark age attitudes such as this. Supplanting these evil and arcane ideas in a hopeful, pliant and malleable people...

Interesting article from here, dated 19 Feb 2009 - “In an audience at the Vatican today, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has invited Pope Benedict XVI, leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, to Britain and has promised him a “warm welcome”. The Presbyterian ‘Son of the Manse’ (a reference to the fact that his father was a Church of Scotland minister) enjoyed a meeting with the pontiff that lasted a little under 40 minutes including pleasantries. This was much longer than scheduled. Mr Brown made global poverty a particular priority for the conversation, since this is a topic on which the two men see very much eye to eye. In an unprecedented gesture, L’Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, this morning carried a two column front...

Here are my NewsBiscuit submissions for the last month. First, one that made the front page: Government Agrees Rescue Package For Snowmen (original submission) Now the others. Tip of the hat to anhodika for inspiring the first one and to Smudge for the headline on the second one. (Community site, see?) Straw refuses to publish details of amendments to Freedom of Information Act Following backlash against the scrapped publication of Parliamentary minutes from the run-up to the Iraq war, Jack Straw has announced that there will be a series of reforms to the current Freedom of Information Act. He promised reporters that the new Act would be more efficient and less easily circumvented, but he refused to divulge how this would be achieved or exactly what the proposals were. Speaking on BBC...

"I was astounded to discover how topical the issue of Galileo's trial still is in the Vatican", writes Colin Blakemore in the Observer. He is plugging his Channel 4 documentary, part of the History of Christianity series (uneven, but generally quite good) in which he tackles the thorny issue of religion v science.I must say it doesn't surprise me. It would only surprise someone who thought the question at issue was whether the sun revolved around the earth, or vice versa, and that once that question was settled (it turns out that the earth revolves around the sun, sort of) there was nothing left for the church to do but issue a humiliating apology. But it was much more significant than that. More than anyone else, Galileo can be blamed (or congratulated) for driving a wedge between...

Vatican insiders are reeling from reports that Matthew Perry will be the next Pope. The former Friends star is said to be considering the role at his Alpine retreat in west Moldovania, describing the project as his 'toughest role yet' and preparing with a rigorous regime of yodelling, mountain running, genuflection and goat-lifting. Perry reportedly beat out competition from George Clooney, Pierce Brosnan and Stellan Skarsgard to take the role, with insiders speculating that Catholic chiefs wish to steer the office in a more sensitive direction. Perry's agent gave us the following statement:'We all know Matthew as the sensitive loser who wins in the end - but viewers never got to see his more spiritual side in Friends, and being Pope will allow him to make a real difference in the world....

Home Comment at end 13th February, 2009 20 FACTS ABOUT ISLAM EVERY INFIDEL SHOULD KNOW I found this at Cranmer’s site. I hope that the commenter who posted it will be happy for me to reproduce it here. It might focus minds, especially the shameful Left in British politics - oh yes, and Centre and Right too, who fondly described Mr Wilders tonight on the dreadfully unbalanced Any Questions as evil and nasty for his beliefs about Islam.  But Mr Wilders is NOT the only one who questions Islam per se, as this person’s contribution confirms.  It all adds to that great canvass of FREE SPEECH, don’t you think? religion of pieces said… Twenty facts about Islam every infidel should know. Islam … 1) Is a mind-control and information-control cult founded by a...