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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#15048 Post contents: @Keith, The strife between the secular government and the church in Italy has been about more than Christ and his teachings, google the Medicis. Heckling a Pontiff is rude, and not something of which I approve. In this case, the threat of heckling Pope Benedict sufficed to get the speech rescheduled, an outcome the protesters almost certainly foresaw. It's not as if such strife is new; protesters tried to throw the coffin of the controversial but now blessed Pius IX into the Tiber. The monks who taught me, taught me that a good essayist should be able to make his point without disparaging the anatomy or proclivities of those with whom he disagrees, which are arguments ad hominem. And when the institution the essayist seeks to defend has regrettably amassed a lamentable track record on these very issues in recent years, it adds a comic note. Pointing this out in no way *suppresses the Roman Church's voice," and may even help it find a more persuasive and forceful voice in the future. Alabamans have the University of Alabama and Auburn University and their pigskin chasers to keep them amused; the citizens of the Eternal City have Don Camillo and Peppone and their bosses to provide the same service. Sent at: 2008 11 21