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Entry: Pope Banned from Speaking in Rome Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/wankers_ban_pope_from_speaking_in_rome#15017 Post contents: By the sounds of it, when you make it to Rome, you will be a veritable innocent abroad. The Romans have a sophisticated way of dealing with each other that they call Romanità. The role of the Papacy and Church in Italy has been the source of controversy for centuries. The current Pontifex Maximus is firmly asserting papal prerogatives, and not everyone likes it. Rather than to reopen the tired debate about the relationship between the Italian state and the Vatican, these students and faculty are couching their displeasure in polite if somewhat disingenuous terms. Every last Roman, with centuries of history in his or her bones, will understand the score. Benedict XVI's trip to La Sapienza was not primarily about teaching, but rather a societal occasion from which he was uninvited. If you believe that homosexuality is not entirely uncommon in Muslim cultures where sexual relations between man and woman outside of marriage is an absolute taboo, you're badly mistaken. Just ask Ted Haggard or other Republicans of his type. Feminist professors, to use the term loosely, of the caliber you describe, are largely the fruits of WASP societies and colleges having become degree mills and rites of passage. As for Rocco Buttiglione, the controversy about his statements on homosexuality may have had much more to do with the fact that he was nominated to be the European Justice minister by Silvio Berlusconi, a man well known to have a rather complicated relationship with the judicial system. Perhaps declaring his comments about homosexuality to be unacceptable were a fig leaf used by some who did not want to risk Europe's enduring a flawed Justice minister. Why did Buttiglione make the somewhat unusual statements he did about the Italian who eventually was chosen to succeed him? Dismissing anticlerical college students as "wankers" is not a sign of serious discourse, particularly in this context with the Roman Church having had its own scandals. Sent at: 2008 11 21