Picture/Report: The ugly, ignorant face of anti-papism on display

It's not only the intolerance and double-standards that outrages me, it's the laughable and pathetic ignorance of history and what the Church actually teaches and is that these people are demonstrating.

Just give this EuroNews report a read (also features video):

"A planned visit by Pope Benedict to Rome's most prestigious university has unleashed a wave of protest. The Pontiff is due to speak at La Sapienza on Thursday at a ceremony launching the 2008 academic year. But defending science as secular, some students and members of staff want his invitation withdrawn. More than 60 professors have written to the university rector, saying they are offended and humiliated by the Pope's views.

At the forefront of the protest, Professor Marcello Cini said: "As teachers of this university, we all have different backgrounds and cultures and we cannot accept an outside authority coming here to tell us what is right and wrong."

[AmP: This statement sounds like the plaintive whinings of a 2-yr-old. And I'd really like to see Prof. Cini explain what he means by the Pope telling folks what is right and wrong. Does that means he forces them? (He can't) Does that mean he claims unique scientific knowledge (He doesn't) ... really, what a sloppy nonsensical statement from this brave defender of human reason and academic pursuit!]

A speech made by the Pope nearly two decades ago has sparked anger among academics. They say it shows the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger favoured the Church's heresy trial against Galileo in the seventeenth century, for teaching that the Earth revolved around the sun."

[AmP: Let's pause for a moment here. Are these folks actually protesting the Pope's visit because they believe Pope Benedict ... is a modern geocentrist?! Is that the most sophisticated objection the entire posse can latch upon? A 20-yr-old lecture where the Pope could be construed as supporting .... my goodness, it's not even worth completing the sentence. I'm sure it's not so simple.]

Anyway, the mind boggles at this type of public farce.

And to return briefly to the Galileo charge, I find it recurrently illuminating about the nature of the anti-Catholic project that they always must go back hundreds of years and exhume the ghost of Galileo's trial controversy whenever they try to caste the Church as "anti-reason." Really, is that the best they have?

I think it's revealing that the ultimate answer to my question is - yes, that's really the best they have.

[photo: AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia]