A linguistics professor was lecturing to his class one day. “In English,” he said, “A double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative.”
A voice from the back of the room piped up, “Yeah, right.”
I had this same reaction to the pope’s recent announcement concerning his new resolve to root out pedophiles from the priesthood, which he made in between the beverage service and the in-flight movie on his way to Washington and the first papal White House visit in 29 years.
Mark Twain said, “actions speak louder than words but not nearly as often.”
The actions of the church on this matter have spoken loud and clear, and no sanctimonious press release is likely to deafen their roar.
And so now, we face a whole week of nauseatingly hypocritical publicity stunts. According to President Bush, we can count on the pope to teach Americans the difference between “simple right and wrong.”
Simple, of course, being the operative word.
Filed under: catholics
