Saturday 19 December 2009

News from the very dark cave

The region of Emilia-Romagna has recently established that couples, including those with children, (in lay speak, 'families') are entitled to welfare provisions whether they're married or not. This has attracted the anathema of the local befrocked wingnut cardinal, a certain Signor Caffarra, the sour-faced old biddy on the right. He has announced that 'God will judge them.' Until such judgement is carried out, as the Great One's self-elected mouthpiece, he accuses the council of wanting to 'devastate the social fabric' and invites civil disobedience against 'a gravely unjust law that doesn't deserve to be respected'. It's hard to see exactly how one can disobey a law which simply extends already existing social services to a larger number of people, but logic isn't one of the Vatican's strong points and the usual fuss has been made.

In the meantime, a 75-year-old Syrian woman in Saudi Arabia has sentenced to forty strokes of the whip and four months in one of the Holy Kingdom's jail, followed by deportation. Her crime? She allowed two men into her house who weren't members of her family. They were bringing her some bread. Ah, families!

3 comments:

Lorenzo Berardi said...

Caffarra lives in the wrong century. He would have like to be a Torquemada. Living in Bologna I have the pleasure of seeing him several times in official cerimonies. It's unbelievable the way he signs the cross on himself, like a knight from Middle Ages before riding his horse in the fight to kill some infidels. He is the grimmy face and an awful expression of the overpower (and frustration) of the Catholic Church in Italy. I would suggest him to relax somehow, but he is even not able to smile, so it's a hard task...

Ms Baroque said...

No, no, no, nooooo... so distressing. WTF.

See you soon I hope xx

Charles Lambert said...

Yes, Lorenzo, Caffarra smiling is a frightening prospect, though it would probably do him (and everyone else of his parish) some good.

I hope so too, Ms Baroque!