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In today’s “what the hell were they thinking” department, the online edition of The Boston Globe features a story on local reaction to the pope’s death. In light of the catholic church’s sexual abuse scandals in New England, the Globe’s home page packaging of this story (screen cap to the right) is curious. First of all, we have a photo of a man in one of those church cubicles where nothing can be seen below chest-elbow level. Secondly, pair that with the headline “Touched By The Pontiff,” and one must wonder if the Globe’s editors really have a warped sense of humor or if they are just clueless. Or perhaps they’re just being sloppy in their rush to pile on the sainthood bandwagon. Not since the death of Ronald Reagan has there been such an utter and complete whitewashing of a man’s legacy by mainstream media. AIDS is ravishing areas of Africa, where the catholic population is growing, yet the church steadfastly refuses to discuss the possible use of condoms, even though they could save countless lives. The church refuses to consider married men — or women — for priesthood, despite the fact there’s a critical shortage of priests in many areas of the world (and particularly so in the U.S.). On one of today’s most divisive social issues, the pope had this to say: Homosexual marriages are part of “a new ideology of evil” that is insidiously threatening society. How’s that for compassion and tolerance. And let’s not forget the sexual abuse scandals and coverups … and one must be incredibly naive to think the pope wasn’t aware of what was going on. Before John Paul II, the catholic church was considered by many to be somewhat progressive and reform-minded. Not so today. I loved what they had to say over at Nightcharm (a totally not-safe-for-work link but it does fill a goal of mine to both write about the pope and link to porn in the same blog entry), so I’ll just quote them:

We can think of no better reaction than what Bette Davis said upon hearing of the death of Joan Crawford. In an act of heroic generosity, Bette put aside her 40-year feud with her scene-stealing co-star in the QUEER 101 essential film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane and looked deep into her heart where she found these touching words: “They say that nothing but good should be said of the dead. She’s dead. Good.”