Students stage new anti-Catholic protest in Rome

I must admit that I take some degree of pleasure seeing the Catholic Church continue to take a beating in Rome. Like the protests earlier in the week that caused Benedict XVI to cancel his speech at Rome's La Sapienza University, the students are raising Hell about the Church's continued attempts to meddle in civil law matters. Unlike Benedict XVI, many Italians do not want to go back to the 14th century. I hope the trend continues and that some folks will wake up in this country and start making more noise about the Christianists' meddling in civil law matters. Here are some highlights from Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL173516320080117):

ROME (Reuters) - Students at Italy's top public university protested against the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday after forcing Pope Benedict to cancel a visit. Riot police stood guard near the loud but peaceful march at Rome's La Sapienza university, which was founded by a pope more than 700 years ago and is now at the centre of a national debate about the role of religion in secular society.

Students marched in the rain with banners reading "Freedom for the University", after decrying what they view as Church meddling in Italian affairs through its public stance on issues like abortion, gay rights and euthanasia. The German Pontiff decision not to attend Thursday's ceremony followed protests by a small but vociferous group of students and faculty members. Some occupied part of the campus to demand he stay away.

Much of the controversy centered on a speech the Pope made in 1990, when the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger quoted an Austrian philosopher as saying the Church's heresy trial against Galileo in the 17th century was "rational and just". By arguing the Earth revolved around the sun, Galileo had clashed with the Bible, which read: "God fixed the earth upon its foundation, not to be moved forever."

Another quote the Pope used in 2006 upset Muslims around the world. In a speech at a university in his native Germany, he quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor as saying Islam had only brought evil to the world and that it was spread by the sword.