Bum-Ba-Bummmm! It's Vaticanews!

Greetings,

As promised, here's a weekend edition of Vaticanews:

Vaticanews 06/27/09

BULLETINS:
Vatican Denies that Benedict Made a Reasonable Decision
Last week, the Vatican inexplicably issued a statement condemning a claim made by Rev. Peter Gumpel which was neither negative nor untrue. Gumpel believes that Pope Benedict is delaying the beatification of Pope Pius XII to preserve relationships with the world's Jewish population. Pius was pontiff during the Holocaust, you see, and if becoming a saint wasn't difficult enough, being accused of not doing enough to stop Hitler is bound to further complicate things. So it seems reasonable that Benedict would take his time with this one. In fact, at a conference last October, Benedict said he would give "serious consideration" to freezing the sainthood process until Pius' archives could be opened and fully examined (which will take years). But just because the Pope says it doesn't mean the Vatican has to agree.
(source= The Washington Post)

Thunderstorms: No Match For Jesus or Modern Air Travel
Last Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI was all set to take a helicopter (holycopter?) to the burial site of St. Padre Pio, when a sudden thunderstorm made the trip impossible. But the Pope wasn't about to be bested by some random act of God, so he took a plane instead. Once he arrived, Benedict gave a speech which included the Gospel story of Jesus calming a storm to make a journey of his own. Presumably Jesus would've just gotten on a plane, too, if he hadn't already been out at sea when the bad weather began. The real point of Benedict's trip was to honor St. Padre Pio, but we didn't have anything to say about that, so we're focussing on the storm.
(source= Catholic News Service)

HEADLINES:
Vatican Daily Paper Pulls a Serious WTF
Michael Jackson's death on Thursday has been claiming countless headlines, as is to be expected. But who could've imagine that L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official daily newspaper, would have something to say about it? Not only that, but what they had to say is actually quite bizarre.
Let's start with this quote: "But will he really be dead? It wouldn't be surprising if, in a few years, he was spotted in a gas station in Memphis, perhaps with his former father-in-law, Elvis Presley." Yes, L'Osservatore Romano, it most certainly would be surprising, it just wouldn't be more surprising than that sentence. And it doesn't stop there. The article also discussed when Jackson "was still black", as well as his racial "crossover" saying, "maybe [he] didn't simply want to become white, but to transcend boundaries, even artistic ones, imposed by ethnic identities." Nevermind that Jackson always attributed his change in complexion to a skin condition, L'Osservatore Romano calls 'em like they sees 'em.
But the biggest question here is: why did this article get written at all? There's no article on Ed McMahon or Farrah Fawcett. What particular interest does the Catholic world have with Michael Jackson's death? Perhaps it's solidarity amongst alleged pedophiles. Alleged. Pedophiles.
(sources= Inquirer.net & Reuters)