Another Blow to the Catholic Church.

The Pope is coming to Britain in September. In lieu of his upcoming visit, the British Foreign Office circulated an internal memo - born from "a discussion between three or four junior staff members who had gotten together to brainstorm on how to make the visit a success", and probably after a less than enthusiastic staff meeting, no doubt - listing some important activities for the Catholic Church's premier gateway to God. 

The product of this "brainstorm session" lists such appropriate "social" activities for Pope Benedict as: a "launch of 'Benedict' condoms", "launch a helpline for abused children", "open an adoption ward", "bless a civil partnership", "announce sacking of dodgy bishops", and a "training course for all bishops on child abuse allegations".

The Brits clearly know how to exercise discretion.

The hilarity of the situation aside, with national elections just weeks away, the Labour party has to be kicking themselves; there are 4.4 million British Catholics, and most of them vote Labour. The Conservatives, lead by David Cameron whose Libertarian-esque opening campaign speech heralded increased individual responsibility and a smaller government, has to be smiling at the inability of the Foreign Office to control their junior staffers. 

I wonder who the asinine moron was to actually leaked the memo to the Daily Telegraph. The NYT wrote that British Catholics won't be bothered by the contents of the memo because "they are used to getting bad press."

Maybe Henry VIII knew what he was doing when he created the Church of England.