Pope Rat lays one down on Judas, who is dead and thus unable to defend himself effectively.

"The money was more important than communion with Jesus, more important than God and his love," he told a congregation in the Basilica of St John Lateran. The Pope said the renegade apostle's lies had cast him into a hopeless, downward spiral. "He became hardened, incapable of conversion, of the trusting return of the prodigal son, and threw away his ruined life." Vittorio Messori, who wrote a book with the Pope, said the pontiff's approach was "the strictest interpretation of the mystery of the betrayal". Even his predecessor, John Paul II, had seen some hope for Judas in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope, published in 1994.

As any decent theologian knows, the abandonment of hope is a definitively anti-Christian act, and specifically condemned by prophets from the Old Testament to the church next door. Da pope better watch his back.

Slightly OT: Anyone looking for cheap, vicarious religious thrills (and aren't they the best kind?) should rent the movie Dogma and show it in a room full of Catholic theologians. When I showed it to Carinthia (doctorate in theology, Trinity College Dublin) she watched the first act with amusement, pointing out obscure transgressions and citing relevant passages from the Old Testament, but when it came to the central theme of the movie, she leapt out of her armchair, cocktail flying. Pointing at the screen as they once must have pointed at Hester Prynne, she postively bellowed.

"The Plenary Indulgence! That goddam Plenary Indulgence! I knew it was nothing but trouble! NOTHING but trouble."

She then went on to slander, in baroque and glorious terms, the pope who came up with the stupid scheme and every band of roving cardinals who'd ever supported it. By name. Quite impressive. Even though I had spent a pretty penny on the brandy for that Sidecar, it was still worth it. Nothing like watching people get all riled up over obscure metaphysical references. I am reminded of a letter to Miss Manners; she was asked what she would have done at a dinner party given by the writer…it seems that several people got into heated discussion of whether or not the existence of angels depended upon the existence of God, to which Miss Manners, ever sensible, replied, "Where was this dinner party and why was Miss Manners not invited? She always ends up sitting between people who live to discuss the price they got for their condos, or the price they paid for their cars."

Word.