Vatican may as well just wipe their asses with money.

...because they sure as Hell arent using their considerable fundage productively these days, it seems. So, the Vatican is hosting a conference to put a positive PR spin on the frikkin' CRUSADES. The Crusades. Puh-leeze. As a lapsed Catholic agnostic I am particularly sensitive to all the ways that the Catholic Church seems to be hastening its own demise. From tightening the screws on their celibacy and all-male priest rules, to bankrupting themselves with huge embarrassing payouts in pedophilia scandals, and everything in between.

Oy Vey

This is yet another ridiculous and ill-timed decision by the Vatican in a string of recent ill-timed and ridiculous decisions. For a religion with a foundation in helping those in poverty, this conference is a colossal waste of money which will garner ONE outcome and one outcome only...to piss the fuck out of Muslims EVEN MORE.

THE Vatican has begun moves to rehabilitate the Crusaders by sponsoring a conference at the weekend that portrays the Crusades as wars fought with the "noble aim" of regaining the Holy Land for Christianity.

The Crusades are seen by many Muslims as acts of violence that have underpinned Western aggression towards the Arab world ever since. Followers of Osama bin Laden claim to be taking part in a latter-day "jihad against the Jews and Crusaders".

File under DUH. John Paul 2 never would have done anything this stupid. Not saying the man was a saint (um, hes not yet, right?), but he was not a warmonger.

The late Pope John Paul II sought to achieve Muslim- Christian reconciliation by asking "pardon" for the Crusades during the 2000 Millennium celebrations. But John Paul's apologies for the past "errors of the Church" -- including the Inquisition and anti-Semitism -- irritated some Vatican conservatives. According to Vatican insiders, the dissenters included Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

I stayed out of the dKos Pope Wars in large measure last year, but this is just too stupid not to rant about. Ratzinger is a fool in Gucci loafers, and he's ruining his church at a faster pace than ever before.

The Crusades are a not a point of pride in the History of Western Civilization, no matter how you spin it. There is simply nothing honorable about slaughter in the name of God, ever. To waste money and energy trying to sugarcoat The Crusades NOW, when Western relations with the Islamic world is strained BADLY is just foolish. I feel badly for my father and other devout Catholics who are asked to accept the headspinning politics of this faith along with the good principles.