Trying not to pile on...

...and in general I do try to be equally disdainful of all organized religions. BUT. The Vatican's crisis management merits attention for a moment simply as an exercise in epic narrative fail. Quoth the Times:

The Vatican heatedly defended Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, claiming accusations that he helped cover up the actions of pedophile priests are part of an anti-Catholic ''hate'' campaign targeting the pope for his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. [...] Also arguing that Benedict's promotion of conservative family models had provoked the so-called attacks was the Vatican's dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano.

''By now, it's a cultural contrast,'' Sodano told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. ''The pope embodies moral truths that aren't accepted, and so, the shortcomings and errors of priests are used as weapons against the church.''

So the line in the sand they want to draw is this -- if you condemn the cover up of criminal behavior by priests, you only do so because of the Church's stand against gay marriage. But allowing the exploitation of children in the name of defending moral values is taking the high road. For Jesus.

If any of my characters made an argument such as this (I tried for an adjective, really I did -- and I failed), I would be a really bad playwright.

But this is real life. It's real.