Pope Ratshit Needs an Etiquette Lesson

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The announcement that Pope Benedict XVI will be visiting the UK in September was annoying enough to the Brits, who are being asked to shell out £20 million for the honor of playing host to the former Nazi. But the holy asshole has issued a statement saying that he applauds Britain's pending equality legislation that would prohibit discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, just as long as the church doesn't have to abide by it.

The British government, unlike ours, has the balls to stand up to bigotry and naturally the bigots don't like it. One notable exception is the DC city council. The church objected when DC approved same-sex marriage and wanted to be exempted from the city's non-discrimination policies. Catholic Charities threatened to pull out of the District and end it's services to homeless women and children, to which DC said, "see ya!"

The man in the funny dress says that the UK's pending Equality Law is unfair and discriminatory because it interferes with the Catholic Church's right to be unfair and discriminatory.

I received a press release from Peter Tatchell of the British LGBT rights group Outrage! this morning. Tatchell says, "Pope Benedict is unhappy with the new rights and protections afforded to women and LGBT people. He objects to the fact that religious institutions can no longer lawfully discriminate at will on the grounds of gender and sexual orientation."

Tatchell continued, "The Pope's criticism that British equality legislation 'violates the natural law' is a coded attack on the legal rights granted to women and gay people. It is a de facto defence of faith-based discrimination. "His ill-informed claim that our equality laws undermine religious freedom suggests that he supports the right of faith organisations to discriminate in accordance with their religious ethos. He seems to be defending discrimination by religious institutions and demanding that they should be above the law."

I'm not sure what Papa Nazi hopes to accomplish by his remarks. The Brits divorced the Catholic Church about five centuries ago and aren't interested in a reconciliation. But just like a meddlesome ex-mother-in-law, he feels he has the right to insert himself into domestic affairs that he is no longer part of. What the church hasn't learned in the 500 years since Henry VIII is that it does no good to dangle your approval like a prize in front of people who don't value it.

Pope Benny can learn a valuable lesson in etiquette from the gays he despises so much: you don't insult your hostess until after you arrive at the party.

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