Here is a classic example...

This is the sort of article that shows the world exactly by what light the Catholic Church is seen in our modern era.

To imagine that the highest authorities in the British Foreign Service, and all of Whitehall itself, would circulate such a document (even in jest) knowing the state of the world's view of the Church and the Pope is staggering, but to know it is fact is almost heartbreaking.

This sort of juvenile, bigoted humor could be expected from a modern newspaper... or even a Third World government lackey... but from "senior officials" within the Government of the United Kingdom? It is nauseating. It is inexcusable.

Want to know what is REALLY upsetting? This would NEVER have happened if the upcoming trip being planned had been a senior Muslim cleric, or an ancient Rabbi from Eastern Europe who had somehow survived the Holocaust, or even if the subject of the memo had been the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Rowan Williams (who agrees with the Pope on many of the same issues that the memo mocked). Even if it had happened in one of these manners, those responsible wouldn't have been "reassigned" to other duties... they'd have been fired immediately. The public outcry would have shaken the halls of British government from one end of the kingdom to the other.

But, it was Benedict that they were mocking... no one else. There will be no public outcry, no masses taking to the streets crying out for justice, no boycotts, no one will be dismissed. This kind of bigotry is a direct reflection on the faith and belief of 1.1 billion people across the globe (that's more than 20% of every man, woman and child living today)... but the story will be forgotten tomorrow.

How much do you want to bet that people like Salman Rushdie or the cartoonists from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have passionately wished they had picked on the Pope rather than Mohammad, just for the sake of their family's safety?