Reach for the barf bag

According to Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the pope who covered up for priests who raped kids is just like Jesus. Or something like that. "The leader of the nation's second-largest diocese urged his congregation to pray for the pope, saying he was suffering some of the same unjust accusations once faced by Jesus," according to an associated press article.

Well, Tim, there are just a few differences. Let me help you out here. Jesus was a humble carpenter who plaintively remarked once that while foxes had their dens and birds their nests, he had nowhere to lay his head. Had he been walking the earth today, he might have said, Pope Benedict sleeps in a multi-million dollar mansion while I wander around homeless.

Jesus said of the little children, let them come unto me, and if anyone causes harm to them, the offender would be better off to have a millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the sea. The pope, on the other hand, has demonstrated a shocking lack of concern the children who were raped, sodomized and sexually assaulted while supposedly under his care, while displaying tenderness for the offenders. He allowed Father Larry Murphy, who sexually abused 200 Deaf boys, to live out his life as a priest instead of being defrocked simply because Murphy asked him to.

Jesus mingle with the poor, the miserable, the lonely, the sick. He ate with women, which was a big no-no in his day. The pope hobnobs with the rich and famous, and if he has ever been photographed with a woman, I don't remember seeing it. He did, however, allow the mother of a nine-year-old rape victim to be excommunicated for taking her little girl to get an abortion instead of making her bear the rapist's twins. He did, however, make a ruling that a woman could not have her uterus removed to prevent a pregnancy that could kill or harm her. Not a champion of the powerless in my book.

The most pertinent difference: Jesus was persecuted UNJUSTLY. Jesus spoke out against the powerful and got killed for it. The pope IS a person in power. He is the equal of the Pharisees that Jesus condemned, concerned only that the religious institution look good, not that the people's needs be tended. He follows the letter of the law while blatantly ignoring its Spirit. To compare Jesus with the pope is nothing short of blasphemy.