News

I haven't followed this story closely, but it appears the Catholic Church, or rather the Vatican, has its own version of Watergate.

It is very possible the infallible pope may be fallible after all.

First, it was an American problem. Then, an Irish problem. But as the scandal of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests has rocked continental Europe in recent weeks, observers inside and outside the church have begun to recognize that it is now very much a Vatican problem, one that is creeping ever closer to Pope Benedict XVI.

"The focus now is on Benedict," the U.S.-based National Catholic Reporter wrote Friday in a strongly worded editorial on the scandal. "What did he know? When did he know it? How did he act once he knew?"

Revelations of abuse in Germany, particularly in the Munich archdiocese while Benedict was the archbishop, have seemingly put a lid on the argument by some in the Roman Catholic Church that sexually abusive priests were an American aberration, the result of lax morals and overblown news coverage in the United States.

Not good if Pope Benedict XVI is forced to step down.
_____

A live stream or whatever of the silliness in Searchlight, Nevada, is here.

Sarah Palin also showed up at the shindig.
_____

A very young cancer victim has a lesson to teach young people about the dangers of smokeless tobacco.