Get it? Pain in the… nevermind.

That’s part of an “Unhate” campaign from Benetton. They got heat from the Vatican about it, and they pulled the image of the Pope.

But why just that one? Why is it more offensive for the Pope to be photoshopped kissing another world leader, but not other world leaders? Benetton said:

‘We are sorry that the use of an image of the pontiff and the imam should have offended the sensibilities of the faithful in this way. We have decided with immediate effect to withdraw this image from every publication.’

What do you think — should they have withdrawn the image?

And what do you think of the campaign itself?

Whatever it is, it’s brilliant marketing. It’s being talked about everywhere.

I thought that such devotion could only come from a religion, but now we’re seeing something similar at Penn State. If you haven’t kept up with the news, it appears that an assistant coach of the Penn State football team, Jerry Sandusky, sexually assaulted a number of young boys. It has been revealed that coach Joe Paterno had been aware of at least one of these assaults as early as nine years ago. After the allegation came to light, Joe Paterno was fired by the board of trustees. Now, some of the students are rioting. From the New York Times:

After top Penn State officials announced that they had fired Joe Paterno on Wednesday night, thousands of students stormed the downtown area to display their anger and frustration, chanting the former coach’s name, tearing down light poles and overturning a television news van parked along College Avenue.

The demonstrators congregated outside Penn State’s administration building before stampeding into the tight grid of downtown streets. They turned their ire on a news van, a symbolic gesture that expressed a view held by many that the news media exaggerated Mr. Paterno’s role in the scandal surrounding accusations that a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, sexually assaulted young boys.

“I think the point people are trying to make is the media is responsible for JoePa going down,” said a freshman, Mike Clark, 18, adding that he believed that Mr. Paterno had met his legal and moral responsibilities by telling university authorities about an accusation that Mr. Sandusky assaulted a boy in a university shower in 2002.

Demonstrators tore down two lamp posts, one falling into a crowd. They also threw rocks and fireworks at the police, who responded with pepper spray. The crowd undulated like an accordion, with the students crowding the police and the officers pushing them back.

I just can’t believe this. Personal Failure at Forever in Hell can; she lives in Penn State territory. She reports: “I am right now listening to my coworkers going on and on about how terrible it is that Joe Paterno was fired. How dare they? JoePa was at PSU for 61 years, where’s the loyalty? JoePa did what he had to do, how dare they question it? JoePa is a good man, how could they fire him? None of what is being said about him is true, journalists lie.”

Ugh.

EDIT: This image from the protest sums it up:

Well, and I’d guess the whole priests-raping-their-children thing might have factored into it, too.

Catholic Ireland’s stunning decision to close its embassy to the Vatican is a huge blow to the Holy See’s prestige and may be followed by other countries which feel the missions are too expensive, diplomatic sources said on Friday.

The closure brought relations between Ireland and the Vatican, once ironclad allies, to an all-time low following the row earlier this year over the Irish Church’s handling of sex abuse cases and accusations that the Vatican had encouraged secrecy.

Ireland will now be the only major country of ancient Catholic tradition without an embassy to the Vatican. [...]

Dublin’s foreign ministry said the embassy was being closed because “it yields no economic return” and that relations would be continued with an ambassador in Dublin.

The source said the Vatican was “extremely irritated” by the wording equating diplomatic missions with economic return, particularly as the Vatican sees its diplomatic role as promoting human values.

Diplomats said the Irish move might sway others to follow suit to save money because double diplomatic presences in Rome are expensive.

Embed this:

Like Unreasonable Faith on Facebook for daily skeptical goodness:

Yup. Trigger warning: Don’t read this if you don’t want to be angry for the rest of the day. Please enjoy this baby numbat instead.

From BBC News:

Spanish society has been shaken by allegations of the theft and trafficking of thousands of babies by nuns, priests and doctors, which started under Franco and continued up to the 1990s. [...]

The scale of the baby trafficking was unknown until this year, when two men – Antonio Barroso and Juan Luis Moreno, childhood friends from a seaside town near Barcelona – discovered that they had been bought from a nun. Their parents weren’t their real parents, and their life had been built on a lie.

Juan Luis Moreno discovered the truth when the man he had been brought to call “father” was on his deathbed.

“He said, ‘I bought you from a priest in Zaragoza’. He said that Antonio had been bought as well.” [...]

The practice of removing children from parents deemed “undesirable” and placing them with “approved” families, began in the 1930s under the dictator General Francisco Franco.

At that time, the motivation may have been ideological. But years later, it seemed to change – babies began to be taken from parents considered morally – or economically – deficient. It became a money-spinner, too.

The scandal is closely linked to the Catholic Church, which under Franco assumed a prominent role in Spain’s social services including hospitals, schools and children’s homes.

Nuns and priests compiled waiting lists of would-be adoptive parents, while doctors were said to have lied to mothers about the fate of their children.

More at the BBC. Apparently this is the summary of a new documentary, “Spain’s Stolen Babies,” which currently can’t be viewed outside the UK.

But the summary is bad enough. Seriously, don’t read if you are on blood pressure medication. It looks like a less violent but larger version of Argentina’s “missing generation.”

From the New York Times:

A bishop in the Roman Catholic Church has been indicted for failure to report suspected child abuse, the first time in the 25-year history of the church’s sex abuse scandals that the leader of an American diocese has been held criminally liable for the behavior of a priest he supervised. [...]

A decade ago the American bishops pledged to report suspected abusers to law enforcement authorities — a policy also recommended last year by the Vatican. Bishop Finn himself had made such a promise three years ago as part of a $10 million legal settlement with abuse victims in Kansas City.

While the charge is only a misdemeanor, it looks like some authorities are finally holding members of the hierarchy accountable.