The Pope is Reading my Blog!

Hold the presses, people! I think the Pope read my post from a few days ago about pregnancy being a disease and women using condoms to prevent catching it! Seriously! It's been revealed that, when he said that condoms could be acceptable in some cases, "when used by male prostitutes" to prevent the spread of disease, the Pope maintains he didn't mean anything by saying "male" rather than "female."

When Reverand asked the Pope, he says, whether he chose to remark on male versus female prostitutes, the estimable pontiff said no. According to Lombardi, the Pope think that, "The problem is this.... It's the first step of taking responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk of the life of another with whom you have a relationship.... This is if you're a woman, a man, or a transsexual. We're at the same point."

Holy jeez! I'm not sure how to feel about this. First of all, this is still just the Pope's personal thoughts we're discussing; it's not as if the Catholic Church has read the writing on the wall and realized as a whole that condoms can be good. Secondly, this clarification from Rev. Lombardi, or behalf of the Pope, seems suspiciously like a PR ploy. His first remark was pretty inflammatory, hence my rant about pregnancy and the rants of many others, and only now we're hearing that he meant women, too? You know how not to confuse people about your meaning when you're referring to all sexes? Just don't assign a sex to your comment. Just say "prostitutes," not "male prostitutes." Something seems fishy in the idea of the Pope "clarifying" a very specific statement so it means something broader than what he started out with.

But then again, it has to be noted that somebody who speaks to the Pope regularly said the word "transsexual"! To reporters! If you'd asked me yesterday, I wouldn't have guessed anyone near the Vatican even knew what a transsexual was. Which of course isn't to say that the Pope actually does know; he's 83, for crying out loud, and he's been a priest for most of his adult life. It's entirely possible that Lombardi put that word in his mouth, especially if we'll note that what Lombardi said was not a direct quote from His Holiness, but paraphrasing. Seems like he easily could have stuck a few of those extras in himself for the edification of crazy leftist sex-positive whack-jobs like me.

But still, hey, I won't get too bitchy about it. This is a huge step toward a 21st-century point of view inside the Catholic Church. And though I scorn it for its maleficent effects upon the world we live in today and condescend mightily to its back-assward ways, when the Pope says something, I can't deny that the word goes out to millions, maybe even billions. And at least a few dozen of those billions take him seriously. So, hey, dozens, guess what! There are transsexuals! And they can use condoms too!

Also, I shouldn't get too snarky. After all, the Pope's a pretty powerful guy, and if he's reading my blog I guess I should show a little respect. He may be a creepy old German dude, but he's actually showing himself--maybe, possibly--to be kind of cool.