Thoughts in a Haystack

[Snicker!]

A Catholic bishop has called for a blasphemy law in Germany, saying all religions deserved legal protection from attack in order to preserve human dignity.

"Those who injure the souls of believers with scorn and derision must be put in their place and in some cases also punished," said Bamberg Archbishop Ludwig Schick on Wednesday.

He said there should be a "Law against the derision of religious values and feelings," the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.

The paper said that German law only criminalizes attacks on faith if it threatens to create a breach of the peace.

It is, of course, just a coincidence that the Pope recently sued the German satire magazine Titanic over the picture above. At least a spokesman for the bishop said his comments were not linked to the Titanic incident specifically, but were part of a discussion that had been going on for some time.

The magazine was ordered to stop further distribution of the issue but issues already in circulation do not have to be recalled. The magazine is also barred from publishing the image online. Of course, multiple images are on the internet.

By the way, the picture refers to a scandal about the Pope's and his close associates' correspondence being leaked to the media. The front translates as "Hallelujah in the Vatican. The leak has been found." The back reads "Still another leak has been found."

What gets me is calling such things "blasphemy":

BLASPHEMY

1 a: the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God b: the act of claiming the attributes of deity

2 : irreverence toward something considered sacred or inviolable

The Pope is sacred and/or inviolable? We sure as heck know he ain't God. And wouldn't claiming that Pope is sacred and/or inviolable be claiming the attributes of deity for him and be blasphemy under definition 1b?