Report: Pope Benedict 'partial to buffalo mozzarella cheese'

Because you had to know:

Pope Benedict XVI is a big fan of buffalo mozzarella cheese, and eats it often reported Italian daily Il Messaggero on Friday.

Pope Benedict XVI reportedly likes simple dishes and often receives buffalo mozzarella cheese as a gift from bishops from the Campania region in southern Italy where the best buffalo mozzarella is produced.

The cheese is given to Benedict's policemen, who later 'discreetly' take the cheese to his apartment, Il Messaggero reported. (AKI)

A picture of the cheese in question:


The article continues:

Recently there have been fears the highly popular mozzarella cheese may have been contaminated by dioxins and other chemicals from illegally dumped toxic waste.

Japan and South Korea have in recent days halted imports of buffalo mozzarella, and there are fears other countries could suspend imports.

That part, sadly, is true.

The AKI story gets silly at this point:

In the supermarket located inside Vatican City, the dairy section is full of mozzarella cheese products from the southern region of Campania.

Reportedly, the cheese is prized among priests and nuns who visit the supermarket everyday to restock convents, institutes and monasteries.

Oh come on, it's cheese. There's nothing to "report" about priests and nuns "prizing" cheese. Normal folks like cheese, too. And it's no surprise that Italians ... like Italian cheese. For that matter, I doubt there is some huge cartel of Italian mafioso cheese merchants paying off "Benedict's policemen" to supply him with black market premium buffalo mozzarella shipments. Goodness.

I guess Il Messaggero - the original source for this "story" - was chagrined that they missed out on the much-touted "Pope Benedict likes Jewish Pizza" report that circulated recently. Their response? "Pope Benedict likes Italian cheese." Tomorrow's report? "Pope Benedict drinks orange juice!"

You watch, it'll happen.