Oddly, Not Everybody Reviles and Despises the Pope

Including me.

Earlier today I put my name on a petition in support of Pope Benedict XVI. (Support The Pope)

No pressure, but if you could consider doing the same.

I had to look quite a ways down for my name: Brian H. Gill.

I'll admit that putting your name on that petition won't help you get a reputation as a 'forward-looking,' thoroughly Modern person.

As for me, I'm used to being called a fool because I don't go along with the self-described best and brightest.

But, like I said: no pressure.

There are other opinions about Benedict XVI, of course. As some folks demostrated recently:

"Vandals deface Pope's boyhood home"
Catholic World News (April 13, 2010)

"Vandals had painted obscene slogans on the outer walls of the house where Pope Benedict XVI lived as a child. A police spokesman said that it was fair to assume that the damage to the home in Marktl am Inn, now used as a museum, was a response to the sex-abuse crisis. The assailant spray-painted phrases that local reporters described as .too offensive. to be repeated...."

Don't worry: If you want to remain 'open minded' you can tell yourself that Catholic World News is, well, Catholic: and those people would say anything.

From the looks of it, the story didn't originate with CWN, though:

"Pope to see abuse victims in private"
ANSA (April 13, 2010)

"Pope Benedict XVI will meet with victims of sexual abuse by priests, but away from the media spotlight, the Vatican said Tuesday.

"Illustrating the pope's trip to Malta next weekend, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said he would see victims 'in a climate of prayer and reflection, not under media pressure'.

"Benedict has announced a new strategy to weed out paedophile priests, report cases straight to the police, defrock the most serious abusers immediately and provide more support for victims...."

"...Also on Tuesday, a Bavarian paper reported that obscene phrases were found daubed on the house in Bavaria where the pope was born.

"The paper, Augsburger Allgemeine, said the insults, of a sexual nature, were "so offensive" that it viewed them as unpublishable.

"Benedict was born in the small town of Marktl am Inn on April 16, 1927...."

"Pope Benedict’s German Birthplace Vandalized, Police Say"
Bloomberg (April 13, 2010)

"The house in which Pope Benedict XVI was born in the southern Bavarian village of Marktl am Inn was vandalized overnight with an 'obscene' phrase spray-painted above the main door, police said.

"The blue graffiti was discovered early today, Bavarian police said in a statement on their Web site. Authorities, who estimate the damage at 1,500 euros ($2,040), have painted over the text to cover it up. Police are searching for the person who vandalized the house.

" 'You can presume' the graffiti was related to the sex- abuse scandal linked to the Catholic Church in Germany, police spokesman Konrad Rutzinger said by phone from southern Germany. He declined to give details on the content of the graffiti.

"The house defacement occurred three days before the German pope’s 83rd birthday in the town on the Inn River near the Austrian border. The pope was born in the three-story, 18th century house on April 16, 1927. The building has become a museum dedicated to Benedict XVI...."

Of course, maybe ANSA and Bloomberg are part of a papist plot to discredit the stalwart defenders of niceness.

Or, not.

Either way, I rather doubt this vandalism will feature prominently in traditional American news.

Related posts:

• "Pedophile Priests! - or - My Mind is Made Up, Don't Confuse Me With the Facts"
  (April 11, 2010)
• "Oh! The Pedophile Priests! Oh! Oh! Oh!"
  (April 5, 2010)
• "Not Saying the Culturally-Normative Things About Pedophile Priests"
  (April 2, 2010)
• "Cultural Chaos, Divisiveness, and CNN"
  (April 1, 2010)
• "Pedophile Priests, Those Confused Catholics, and the Tolerant Press"
  (April 1, 2010)