I Knew It Wouldn't Last

My truce with Pope Benedict, that is.

I mean, yes, I was surprised when he finally admitted that the problems of the church allowing priests to go unchecked and unpunished while they molest children, was caused by sins within the church and not the fault of The Gays, The Media, The Jews, or The Pro-Choice folks. That made my day. It made me think that this pope is crawling out of the slime of the Dark Ages and into the light of the 21st Century.

Oops. My bad. Spoke too soon.

The Pope, wrapping up a trip to Portugal, where roughly 90 percent of the population is Catholic, made an appeal in Fatima that the Portuguese people stand up for values that are the "essential and primary values of life," such as "the family, founded on indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman."

Vatican speak for No.Gay.Marriage.EVER!!!!!!!!

Benedict then said that abortion, which has been legal in Portugal since 2007, and gay marriage are "some of the most insidious and dangerous challenges facing the common good today."

See what he did there? Common good....gay marriage bad. You hardly noticed his lips moving when he spouts hate.

This new anti-gay speech, and let's be clear, he isn't standing up for "traditional" marriage, he's anti-gay, is the result of the Portuguese parliament's passage last January of a bill that would legalize same-sex marriages; the government had rejected the alternative proposals of civil partnerships. President Anibal Cavaco Silva is under pressure from the Church and conservative groups not to ratify the bill, but, if he vetoes it, parliament can override the veto with another vote.

Which brings the Pope to Portugal.

And ratchets the anti-gay speech up a notch.