Guys, he was just arrested barely two weeks ago for punching a prostitute he hired (according to the cops), after the hooker tried to bite his tongue off. Is now really the time to go bragging to the press about how many people your imitation of him is bringing into your Brooklyn and Rockville Centre churched?
Now that American Muslims have been thoroughly demonized in the last presidential election, Pope Benedict XVI seems keen to open another religious rift, between Catholics and Jews.
Nothing suggests a good week to come like the Catholic Church calling out "godless" Hollywood — or, more specifically, rebuking Tom Hanks and the rest of the fork-tongued heathens who had requested access to shoot parts of Angels and Demons in a few of Rome's celebrated cathedrals. The Vatican apparently has yet to get over the whole Jesus-was-married thing from The Da Vinci Code, and the part in Angels and Demons when Hanks's Robert Langdon arrives at Santa Maria della Vittoria "to find a cardinal being set on fire" doesn't seem to help matters:
Everything you need to know about the Catholic Church can be found in this one simple sentence from the Daily News:
The Sun takes a look at Edward Cardinal Egan and his role as head of the Archdiocese of New York; specifically, how his public profile is much lower than that of his predecessors, John Cardinal O'Connor and Terence Cardinal Cooke. (Unrelated: It seems to us if you want your kid to attain a decent rank in the Catholic church, it's a good idea to give him the middle name "Cardinal.") Since being elevated from his previous position as bishop of Bridgeport the cardinal, while ruthlessly efficient in fixing diocesan finances, has rarely been seen offering pronouncements or making headlines in general. The article suggests that this is a reflection of the diminishing power of urban Catholic leaders in general as their flock disperses out to the suburbs. Perhaps Cardinal Egan's low profile is an acknowledgment of that fact.
You know what's fun? Conspiracy theories involving the Catholic Church. You know what's even more fun? Conspiracy theories involving the Catholic Church and secret homosexuality. You know what's even more fun than that? When the conspiracy theories involving the Catholic Church and secret homosexuality start showing up in official, public court documents. All this means that this week's Village Voice will be lots of fun, as it includes Kristen Lombardi's report on a New Jersey priest who's suing 10 Catholic institutions and individuals, including New York's Cardinal Edward Egan, over, to quote Lombardi, "a pattern of 'retaliation and harassment' that began after Hoatson alleged a cover-up of clergy abuse in New York and started helping victims."
