Sunday, April 25, 2010

Double Standard Much?

So, the British civil servant who released the joke-memo about the Pope is going to keep his job it was reported today.

But not everyone was happy about this:

"The individual responsible has been transferred to other duties. He has accepted that this was a serious error of judgment.

"But we will not be naming him. It was a genuine mistake and he is contrite about it."

Vatican sources hinted that moving this official "sideways" was not enough.

One said: "What if this memo had been written about another head of state or the Chief Rabbi or a senior Muslim cleric?

"The punishment would certainly have been harsher - but as it's the Pope he is being treated as a figure of fun."

So the Vatican expects a civil official who simply makes some intra-office jokes about the Pope to be fired immediately...but then won't remove any bishops for covering-up child abuse, waited years to laicize child abusers themselves, and balk at the idea that they should be blamed for not acting decisively enough in this recent crisis. Riiiiiiggghhtt...that makes a lot of sense. That's very consistent.

Who the hell do these creepy old men in Rome think they are? They seem to understand that, in politics, even innocent gaffes (who among us hasn't made a joke about the Pope before?) result in major consequences if they go public, that people often take the fall in the face of public outrage even if it was just a mistake or is over-reaction.

The British Foreign Office released it's apology so quickly. Just over some silly little jokes! And yet the Vatican doesn't seem to think it's enough, even while apparently thinking that their own organization is totally exempt from that same principle. Even when the crime in question is almost infinitely more grave, they drag their feet and don't act or even say much substantial for ages.

Un-be-lievable!

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