Church Puts Foot In Mouth

Someone needs to tell the Catholic Church that when you find yourself in a very deep hole, the best thing to do is stop digging! After years of allowing child abuse to thrive, protecting the abusers, blaming the victims, and then electing a Pope who was complicit in the cover-up, I didn't think the church could make things any worse. I was wrong.

The church seems to be incredibly talented at bad publicity, because they found a way to make the situation worse. What did they do? They compared the current criticism against the Vatican and the Pope to anti-Semitism. That's right. According to the Vatican's own preacher, Father Raniero Cantalamessa (pictured), criticizing the church reminds him of hundreds of years of anti-Semitism and pogroms (not to mention the murder of millions during the reign of Hitler).

I have to wonder what this idiot was thinking. Could he really be stupid enough to think that was a valid comparison? Well, others weren't buying it. A spokesman for SNAP, the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests, called the comparison "reckless and irresponsible" and "morally wrong".

Then Stephan Kramer, head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, called the comparison "repulsive, obscene and most of all offensive towards all abuse victims as well as to all the victims of the Holocaust."

In fact, the outrage was so strong and widespread that the Vatican is now backing away from the words of it's own preacher. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Cantalamessa's remarks do not represent the Vatican's official view and that his comparison "could lead to misunderstandings." You reckon?

Making matters even worse, the preacher's remarks came as the embattled Pope is trying to arrange a trip to Israel. I can't wait to see what the church will do next to dig that hole even deeper.