Category Archives: vatican

Foot and mouth disease

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Charles Lambert

I’ve been on the point of writing something about the whole paedophile scandal for a couple of weeks now, but really, why bother? The Vatican is doing such a good job of shooting itself in the foot – yes, that’s … Continue reading →

Posted in church, gay, hypocrisy, vatican | 1 Comment

Vatican update!

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Charles Lambert

The Vatican has been having a bit of a rough time these past few days. News arrives from Poland that the ‘miracle‘ needed to sanctify GP2 smells a bit fishy, news that has been roundly denied by B16. In 2006, … Continue reading →

Posted in corruption, hypocrisy, italy, politics, pope, religion, vatican | Leave a comment

Love came down

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Charles Lambert

Are you enjoying the latest cat-fight as much as I am? I’m talking about the one between the Vatican and the Northern League, after Roberto Calderoli, minister for simplification (and they don’t come much simpler than Calderoli) criticised Milan’s Cardinal … Continue reading →

Posted in italy, politics, racism, vatican | Leave a comment

Shut yo’ mouth, Part Two

Posted on August 28, 2009 by Charles Lambert

Silvio Berlusconi has just taken the extraordinary step of suing Repubblica on the grounds that the ten questions the newspaper has been asking him (click to embiggen above or see here) since the Papi-and-Noemi shit hit the fan last February … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, freedom of speech, politics, vatican | 4 Comments

The right of the strongest

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Charles Lambert

There’s a typically Italian kerfuffle going on here at the moment about the authorisation of Ru486, the pill that induces abortion. It’s used pretty much everywhere in the developed world, but Italy’s taken its time about saying yes, for obvious … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, italy, politics, pope, vatican | Leave a comment

Here we go again

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Charles Lambert

Last year, for the most absurd reasons (a choral recital in a nearby building, if I remember rightly), under evident pressure from the Vatican and the post-fascist mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, Rome Gay Pride was denied the use of Piazza … Continue reading →

Posted in gay pride, homophobia, rome, vatican | Leave a comment

Ave fellow thugs

Posted on March 5, 2009 by Charles Lambert

The back in the middle of this picture belongs to someone called Don Giulio Tam. He defines himself as an ‘itinerant Jesuit’ but he’s actually one of the gang of break-away catholic traditionalists, headed by Lefebvre and recently re-admitted to … Continue reading →

Posted in fascism, ratzinger, vatican | 2 Comments

Death and the state

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Charles Lambert

Last December I posted on the case of Eluana Englaro, an Italian woman who had been in a state of vegetative coma for the past seventeen years, following a car accident when she was twenty. After years of legal to-ing … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, englaro, human rights, vatican | 3 Comments

Intimacy

Posted on December 29, 2008 by Charles Lambert

Some weeks before Christmas, well past the watershed, RAI2, one of the Italian state TV channels, showed Brokeback Mountain. Well, actually, it didn’t. It showed a version of Brokeback Mountain shorn of its moments of intimacy. Brokeback Mountain without intimacy is another … Continue reading →

Posted in brokeback mountain, rai, television, vatican | 1 Comment

Seventeen years

Posted on December 18, 2008 by Charles Lambert

Earlier this year I wrote a brief post about a man called Giuliano Ferrara. Ferrara really isn’t that interesting, except as an over-exposed example of chronic brown-nosing that would take some beating even in Italy, and I wouldn’t bring him … Continue reading →

Posted in church, death, englaro, giuliano ferrara, hypocrisy, vatican | 3 Comments