Raggin' on the Vatican

OK, so... in the last year or so, Abe Foxman and his gang have protested the revival of the Latin Mass and the rehabilitation of a “Holocaust-denying” bishop. Now the Vatican is getting pinged for promoting to bishop a priest who “called Hurricane Katrina divine punishment for sin in New Orleans” (and I don't think he was just talking about the lack of parking in the French Quarter). Again, it's funny how selective these protesters are. Fundamentalist preachers have been saying, ever since Katrina struck, that New Orleans had it coming, since it was Sodom and Gomorrah rolled into one. (Wonder what they'll say if “the big one” ever hits San Francisco?) But they can just be ignored, since they're harmless buffoons, plus they're on the right side when it comes to foreign policy – don't ever lose sight of the importance of this factor! But the Catholic Church, which is, on a regular basis, referred to as “irrelevant”, seems to be under a powerful microscope and unable to move a muscle without creating storms of indignation from people who, one would think, couldn't possibly care less. In other words, the Catholic Church is irrelevant, and meaningless, and run by a bunch of old white guys, but their every personnel action, and even their liturgies and prayers, have to be subject to scrutiny by people who aren't even Christian – who, in most cases, aren't religious at all. What's wrong with this picture? And especially, what are all these people afraid of? Do they imagine that the Church still retains a modicum of political power and moral influence, and therefore that this must be fought against and suppressed at all costs? Or perhaps, in the still, dark night, they wake up in a cold sweat, suspecting, even if for only a moment, that the Church might be right?