The Dyanmic Duo: Space Pope & Vaticanews

Hail!

So we're fully operational again, and it feels great. And to help us pack the biggest punch we can as we return, Space Pope updated her blog again, and there's a fresh dose of Vaticanews below.

Also, a quick thanks to Warren Ellis, who picked us as a favorite of his from Webcomics Week on his site. We're totally honored.

Sleet,
You & What Producitons

Vaticanews 05/20/09

BULLETINS:
Bruni says "Peace, Bitches!" to the Catholic Church
French First Lady Carla Bruni "casued uproar" when she said she had decided to bail on Catholicism because of Pope Benedict's position on condom distribution in Africa."It is not the job of a First Lady, especially one who was baptized Catholic, to attack the Pope," said a Notre Dame official. It is, apparently, the job of the Belgian Parliament, which voted 95-18 to publicly and officially denounce Pope Benedict's comments last month (when they were news). The reaction then: shock, but respect. Evidently only entire nations are on the Pope's political tier. But hey, bravo to Carla Bruni for lone-gunning it. Can former supermodels become real-life superheroes? They can't be blamed for trying.
(source= Fox News)

Ok, NOW I'm Getting an iPhone!
Everyone's excited for World Communications Day this Sunday, but it just gets better and better. Turns out the Vatican is launching a Facebook and an iPhone application in conjunction with the holiday as a part of their new website www.pope2you.net. "The Pope Meets You on Facebook" will allow users to send and receive virtual postcards of the Pope at last. And for the iPhone, radio and video reports on the Pope available in eight different languages. That's how many languages a language spider has. All of this will connect to the YouTube channel the Vatican already has, which is all very neat and either raises feelings of I can't wait to see what's next or When will it stop? depending on who you are.
(source= The Catholic Spirit)

HEADLINES:
Vaticanews Simultaneously Praises and Criticizes Vatican Newspaper for Doing the Same to Obama (Below)
In a stroke of dazzling genius, Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano ran two contradictory articles about President Obama in it's May 18 issue. The first (Obama in Search for Common Ground) is about Obama's recent speech at Notre Dame, and highlights his trying to downplay the stem cell/abortion issue during his administration and focus on people unifying in spite of their differences. Then WHAM-O! A few pages later is an article (Campaign in the US Against Stem Cells) supporting U.S. bishops fighting Obama's recent stem cell policy, and harshly criticizing the President for his positions. It's the kind of ballsy journalism you just can't find anymore.
And we call foul! Make up your mind, L'Osservatore Romano, if that's even your real name. There's no need to be backhanded about it, putting the nice article out in front for the limited-Latin readers and saving the meaty bits in the middle for the true fans. Why not just make the negative piece longer, in a larger font, and/or littered with pics? Show your true colors, you lying scum. Crawl out from under your rock and let the sunshine of honesty temporarily blind you.
Of course, it is hilarious. Adding confusion to an already dense issue. Keeping people in the dark about how the Vatican really feels. Classic L'O-Ro. Classic.
(source= Catholic News Agency)

Splog! News! Huzzah!

Word up, guns down.

Space Pope returns to her blog today with a post that's educational, informational and, if you pay attention, just might teach you something.

Also, history in the making with a new Vaticanews, below.

Vaticanews 05/06/09

BULLETINS:
He Thinks the Pope is a "Bigger Annoyance"
Australia has produced plenty of obnoxious people: Mel Gibson, Rupert Murdoch, and anyone with the word "crocodile" in their moniker. But last July, Ian Bryce added himself to the list in a more down-to-earth way—he built a fake pope mobile and drove it up and down the streets of Sydney in protest of the Pope's visit, getting himself arrested for "distracting motorists." This wimpy charge was ultimately dropped last week, and Bryce now claims his action counts as a win for free speech. A spokesperson for free speech, however, said that they had plenty of notches in their belt bigger and deeper than Bryce's traffic stunt.
(source=ABC NEWS)

Cardinal John Henry Newman, Dead for More than a Century, Cures MA Man's Back
A panel of theologians who investigate the legitimacy of miracles recently voted that John Sullivan of Quincy, MA did, in fact, have his crippling spine pain cured through prayer. Cardinal John Henry Newman, to whom Sullivan prayed in 2001, is being given credit for the miracle, which puts him one step closer to sainthood. So everybody wins, except the doctors, who have yet to figure out a medical explanation for Sullivan's cure and may be forced to reassess some of their fundamental spinal assumptions.
(source=The Patriot Ledger)

HEADLINES:
Canada Copies America, Pope Apologizes
When somebody says "Native Canadian" what do you think? Red suit, broad hat, horse? Plaid shirt, axe, ham? Moose, grizzly bears, fish? Eh?
Well, it turns out that "Native Canadian" means exactly the same thing as "Native American," complete with the stripping of culture and special religious schools which abused their students both emotionally and sexually. And just like in the States, Native Canadians demand and deserve apologies. Now, because some three-quarters of these special schools were, way back when, run by Catholic missionary congregations, the church has already paid around $79 million in compensation. But money can't buy me (or anyone else) love, and so last Wednesday, as the first official example of "institutional regret" over the issue, Pope Benedict offered an apology to a group of former Native Canadian students. Benedict expressed his personal anguish, and the Vatican released a statement calling for "renewed hope" for the victims of these atrocities. The Pope also blessed the various pipes, blankets, moccasins, etc. which were presented to him as gifts. Some of these stayed in the Vatican, and some returned, freshly blessed, to Canada, where they will either help the healing process or, at the very least, earn their owners bragging rights.
National chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine said the group left, "happy and comforted." Not to mention that they certainly must appreciate the media letting the world know that there is such a thing as a Native Canadian, and making us sympathetic to their cause. It's easy. Just take the white guilt you already feel about Native Americans and spread it to the north.
(source=Yahoo!News)

Those be the updates for today, but Benedict begins his week-long trip to the Holy Land on Friday, so swing by soon for some hard-hitting Vaticanews coverage of that. And our main strip should be updating again within the week, so eyes peeled and fingers crossed, everyone!

Love to all,
-Y&W P

Updates

Followers and Newcomers! Welcome! Welcome to all!

Today brings us a fresh Space Pope Blog post, and, as per usual, we're pairing it up with the latest Vaticanews:

Vaticanews 04/26/09

BULLETINS:
"Unlock the Secrets of How Men Become Pope" (All it takes are a few rolls of the dice)
If Oregon Trail II taught us anything (other than the details of everyday life on the Oregon Trail) it's that educational games based on the real-life struggles of other people are just more fun. Enter VATICAN The Board Game, a collection of cards, dice, and tiny paper cardinals which simulates the actual career challenges any papal hopeful must face to become elected. Virtually everything's included, from taking a stand on controversial issues to dealing with the complexities of an actual papal election process. Created in 2006 by Dr. Stephen Haliczer, a history professor, VATICAN has each of its players select a cardinal and then compete against each other for position on the board. Then, when the old Pope dies, players further compete against each other to be elected in his place. Sound like a complicated headache in a box? Well, nobody said becoming Pope was easy, but Dr. Haliczer says it can be fun.
source= VATICAN The Board Game

Matters of Size
Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela has a big dream, a 25,000-square-meters dream, and that dream's name is "The Mini-Vatican". Or, some people are calling it that, anyway. Varela plans to construct an enormous clerical complex in Madrid, complete with a three-storey residence and 200 priest-exclusive parking spaces, sometime in the next few years. The problem? He wants to build it on one of the few remaining large green spaces in Spain's capital, and as is typically the case when somebody wants to start a giant construction project like this, many of the city's residents are against it. In a city which already has many churches and suffers from lack of housing and parking, a new religious complex on top of centuries-old gardens is not, some claim, entirely necessary. But because the city council and the church are both in favor of the project thus far, chances are it's going to happen. To steal a closing sentiment from our source article: the only move opponents of the "Mini-Vatican" have left is to pray for some kind of miracle.
source=Monsters and Critics

HEADLINES:
It's Funny Because it Isn't True at All
In recent headlines, the Vatican, as a political body, has come off as something of a snob. The most recent and extreme example came out earlier this week and claimed that, as a backhanded sort of gift for Prince Charles, Pope Benedict would give him a "luxury facsimile" of a 1530 appeal by Pope Clement VII as a reminder of the church's disapproval of divorce and of marrying divorcees. Charles is himself a divorcee, as is his wife, Camilla.
The thing is, this story is actually a lie, and the Vatican had it retracted the day it went into print. Apparently, the blame in this case falls on a writer for the UK Times named Richard Owen, who evidently has a reputation for reporting unfounded stories which might occur, and occasionally, through sheer probability, he ends up predicting the truth. A sort of Miss Cleo for the Vatican press corps.
Owen is an extreme example of a common problem, however. English-language news media don't often assign reporters to the Vatican, which means most news stories written in English actually come from Italian translations, and things can get quite muddled. Also, because of how lightly papal news is taken, the reporters who do write about it are very rarely the most skilled or detail-oriented, and are often actually quite unskilled liars and miscreants which, again, leads to muddling.
What lesson is to be gained from this mass media misstep? Perhaps it serves as a microcosmic example of the larger problem with modern-day news and its need for sensationalism and scandal trumping its supposed devotion to accuracy more and more. Or perhaps it can simply remind us all that Vaticanews, right here in front of your eyes on the 6 or 7 Popes blog, is the most reliable source of Pope info in the known universe, a shimmering lazer-guided wonderboat amidst a fleet of kayaks with busted oars and blind one-armed rowers. Stay on board, folks. There's a lot of ocean left to traverse.
source= National Post

Vaticanews is Bigger than Ever (And Space Pope's Back Again)

Greetings,

Space Pope just updated her blog again, which you can read here.

And because today's a big day for PBXVI, here's the third installment of Vaticanews:


Vaticanews 04/19/09

BULLETINS:
— Anniversaries Abound!
April is a big month for Pope Benedict XVI, who celebrated his 82nd birthday on Thursday, and who, today, celebrates the fourth anniversary of his election to the pontificate on April 19, 2005. The birthday party was a quiet, private event, which is atypical of papal events, but it's his party and he can invite just a few friends and his older brother if he wants to. And for his Benedict's birthday last year, President Bush had a choir sing "Happy Birthday" on the White House lawn, so this year provided as a less noisy, less international contrast. Nice for Benedict, but kind of a bummer for American TV news.
(source=http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1471168.php/Pope_Benedict_XVI_spends_82nd_birthday_resting_)

— Paraguayan President and Former Bishop Also Former Sinner
Fernando Lugo, President of Paraguay, admitted recently that while still a Roman Catholic bishop he'd had an affair a woman named Viviana Carrillo, and that affair had produced a son. This was, naturally, quite a shocking announcement, but Lugo ruined the scandalous mood by very seriously promising to take full responsibility of the child, and then refusing to comment further so he could focus on his presidency. It was offensively decent and honest, this attitude, and not at all becoming of a man who supposedly slept with a woman and had an illegitimate child while employed by the church. Hopefully, he'll make a fresh mistake soon, and we'll be able to pounce on that.
(source=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jjbPzVkmGnEQa5_DKeXXiHroX1pgD97HSASO0)

— As if God Making the Sun Wasn't Enough
It's hard to imagine the Vatican providing the world with anything other than messages of hope, unity, and the Bible, but in five years it may also generate and export electricity for itself and much of the rest of Rome. The Vatican, one of the smallest nations in the world, is readying itself to invest 500 million euros in Europe's largest solar plant. The plant will produce 100 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 40,000 households. And since the Vatican only houses some 900 people, the everyday Italians who live nearby will be able to enjoy some of this energy. While there have been some negative responses to this kind of spending in this kind of economy, the Vatican's stance is that investing in this project now will pay off big time in the long run. Besides, it has the money and sovereignty to do it, so screw what other people think, anyways.
(source=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aO042nyR0px4&refer=europe)

HEADLINES:
But Did John Paul Read any of Fidel's Poetry?
A claim (somewhat outrageous): It doesn't matter who you are, everyone likes attention and everyone likes to hear about themselves.
Support for the claim (somewhat outrageous): A new book on Pope John Paul II's daily life, He Liked Tuesdays Best, tells a fascinating little anecdote about the 1996 meeting between the former pope and the former leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro. Apparently, not wanting to run out of things to talk about, Castro prepared for the meeting by reading many of the pope's teachings and poetry ahead of time. And it worked. According to Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, a secretary of John Paul's from 1996 until 2005, "The Holy Father... was very impressed."
He Liked Tuesdays Best, which been authorized by the Polish Roman Catholic Church, is based entirely on interviews with Mokrzycki. It sold more than 20,000 copies in its first week, and that's just the Polish version. An Italian version is soon to come, and there are talks going on now to get English, German, French, and, of course, Ukrainian versions published ASAP. Soon readers worldwide can read their languages' translations of "The nuns had to bring a cookie," Mokrzycki said. Intrigued? Then write to your local publisher and tell them to get He Liked Tuesdays Best in every bookstore across the nation post-haste.
(source=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j8hkBhiiL9cD5XYrhCSArb-WP19AD979OIKG0)

Space Pope Blog 2 + Vaticanews

Hail!

Space Pope has updated her blog again, and because the Vatican is the country within a country that never sleeps, here's a fresh installment of Vaticanews:

Vaticanews 04/08/09

BULLETINS:
— Kalamazoo: Real Place, New Archbishop
For starters, Kalamazoo is a real place. It's in Michigan. It's the county seat of Kalamazoo County. Also, Pope Benedict XVI recently named Pennsylvania native Paul J. Bradley as the new Archbishop of the Kalamazoo Diocese. Bradley became the "chief shepherd of more than 100,000 Catholics" on Monday, after his predecessor, Bishop James A. Murray, submitted his mandatory resignation after turning 75.
(source=http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/04-06-2009/0005001160&EDATE=)

— Does This Mean Tony Blair's Gay After All?
In an interview earlier today, Tony Blair called for a "rethinking" of the Catholic Church's views on homosexuality. Last year, Benedict remarked that saving humanity form homosexual behavior was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction. Blair blames this on a "huge generational difference." However, Blair's only been a Catholic for the last two years, but he's always been a little... limp-wristed.
(source=http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE53759B20090408)

HEADLINES:
Despite Problems with Entire Nation of Belgium, Vatican Finds Strong New Ally in Welsh Lifting Firm
Most of the media attention on the Vatican recently has been focussed on the Belgian Parliament's vote to lodge the first official protest by a country against the Vatican in history. This protest comes as a reaction to the Pope's remarks that condom distribution in Africa would worsen the AID's problem. Bold moves on both sides.
But there's more to the Vatican than petty arguments with other sovereign nations about who said what to whom. The Vatican Museums' display niches, for example, are famously difficult to move statues in and out of. Luckily, the Vatican may soon be relieved of this tremendous stress, because earlier this week they signed as contract with Reid Lifting, a growing Welsh firm, to develop lifting systems which can more effectivly move the statues from niche to niche. Yes, lifting systems. Who knew?
This is not the first victory for Reid Lifting, which began as a "back-bedroom" outfit and now has an impressive 17 employees. Nor is it the first victory for the Vatican, which has a history and culture far too complex and mysterious to delve into now.
(source=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7978649.stm)

We're the Fools this April + Comic Con

Hello all!

For those of you who checked out the blog yesterday, we understand you may be feeling confused, if not scared or perhaps a bit titillated. There is, however, an explanation for the silliness: Birthday Pope got ahold of our password and decided to have some April Fool's fun with us by posting a bunch of joke material. And to him we say, as always: Very funny, Birthday Pope. You rascal.

The thing is, if yesterday's posts hadn't been full of lies and sneaky excuses to use the trebuchet-firing minicannon (we almost lost our entire dairy farm yesterday when Birthday Pope got his hands on that) they might actually have been interesting, educational, AND hilarious--- the three key adjectives for any You & What endeavor.

So, inspired by Birthday pope's little prank, we thought today we'd launch the real Space Pope Blog here and the real first edition of Vaticanews, which you can read below. Here's hoping y'all enjoy it, and keep checking back for more of this kind of thing in the future.

Finally, You & What is heading to Boston's Comic Con this Saturday. If you're going to be there too, let us know, and we'll bring you a treat. We'll be the hot young lacrosse team with the devil-may-care look in their eyes, handing out flyers and htting on all the cuties. So keep your eyes and hearts open, and we'll see you there!

One love,
---You & What Productions




Vaticanews for 04/02/09:

BULLETINS:
— What Benedict XVI has in Common with Rock Concerts and Football Games
Black Friday shoppers, soccer fans, heavy metal audiences—these are the groups one usually associates with the phrase "trampled to death." But now, teenage Pope fans can be added to the list. As part of the last leg of his African tour, Pope Benedict XVI was supposed to speak at a youth rally in Luanda, Angola. However, as the gates of the stadium opened to let in the 30,000 youths who had gathered to see the pontiff speak, a stampede broke out and in the fight for the best seats in the house, two of the teenagers lost their lives. It just goes to show you that the old saying is still true today: If you have the power to make a lot of people do something crazy, crazy dancing is better than crazy running nine times out of ten.
(source=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5952029.ece)

— Club Flyer Banned for Image of Drunk Pope
A British nightclub called Club Fire recently produced a flyer to advertise the venue with a picture of the late Pope John Paul II dancing with a blonde woman and holding a bottle of beer. While this may well be what John Paul II is up to in Heaven, it is nevertheless a foolish and blatantly offensive move, and, no surprise, the advert has been banned by the UK Advertising Standards Authority. One more point for the censors, friends, and one fewer point for blonde women on posters everywhere.
(source=http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Advert-banned-for-picture-of.5133679.jp)


HEADLINES:
Pope's Feelings not as Important as Feelings of Some Committee of Theologians
Pilgrims from Poland have gathered in Rome this week to honor the death of John Paul II's on this day in 2005. Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI addressed these pilgrims with a prayer for his predecessor's beatification, the first step to achieving sainthood. One would think that this public plea, coupled with the fact that Benedict already waved the usual waiting period back in 2005, would guarantee beatification for John Paul, but that is not the case.

It turns out that the Pope's opinions of other people, although officially sanctioned by God, has very little to do with those people's sainthood. Radio Vatican had an interview with Angelo Amato yesterday, the Vatican official actually in charge of claims to sainthood, and he said that a committee of theologians assigned to John Paul II's "case" in November 2008 was still reflecting on the matter. Until they've reached their decision, it would seem, the rest of the Vatican and the Catholic world will just have to wait.

This isn't keeping anyone from supporting the cause. John Paul II's close friend, former secretary, and difficult-to-pronounce-last-name-haver archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz said he hoped to see this settled in the next several months. Italian film star, sexual icon, and strangely-accented-last-name-haver Sophia Loren wrote of her "devotion" to the late pontiff. And even Nobel Peace Prize winner and title-instead-of-a-first-name-with-the-first-name-next-haver Mother Teresa was mentioned in the article where we got this information.
(source=http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/world/04/01/09/pope-prays-john-paul-iis-beatification)

New New New from the Productions You and What!

Happy April Fool’s Day!

Did you know that April 1st is a day where no one is born? There’s so much to see and learn about on April 1st. Did you hear that it’s the day Leaf Ericksfather and his sea Vikings discovered the Viking tradition of burning their dead? If anybody tells you it’s their birthday today, burn them.

I thought today would be a good day to introduce to you our new feature,

“Vaticanews”

Vaticanews brings you the latest updates straight from the Vatican.

Today’s bulletins:
• modern art will be let into the Vatican for the first time in five hundred years,
• cardinals announced yesterday that attack ferrets were being trained to defend the Pope and his blessed garments,
• and “There Is Nothing Wrong With Sneezing And Then Wiping Your Hand Under The Couch’s Arm,” say Vatican officials in response to Tanzanese political pressure.

Our top story of the day is very relevant: Popes can’t play April Fool’s jokes. That’s right, due to a new and ancient document discovered by pararcheodoxologists in the Gulf of Utah, it is believe that the last thing Jesus said to Peter, who was soon to be the first Pope of Earth, the first thing He said to him was, “Seriously, keep your act together. You’re the Pope now. Be cool. Don’t play. Don’t ever play, not even on - ” That’s where the scroll ends, but experts believe the next words out His mouth were, “April the 1st.” So there you have it, no April Fool’s jokes at all allowed to any Pope anywhere. Think about that.

Thus concludes another edition of,

“Vaticanews”

In closing I’d like to direct your attention to a new blog you should all start reading. It’s brought to you by a friend of ours named Space Pope.

Space Pope’s Blog

I like it a lot. Be cool. Don’t play.

- - What Productions, You?

BBQ?

Here's our first mini-strip, keep checking back until December 15th (when we'll update the main page with a new full-length/-color strip!)

We'll be doing more of these, so tell us which characters you'd like to see more of.