From THE VANCOUVER SUN:
Belgium's Catholic primate Tuesday faced a mounting church backlash, including demands he step down, after urging mercy for elderly child abusing priests and saying AIDS was justly deserved.
Controversial remarks over the last few days by Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, a conservative close to Pope Benedict XVI, have hit specially hard in a country reeling from a major church child abuse scandal.
The latest sign of growing unease within the church was a sudden announcement Tuesday by Leonard's spokesman Juergen Mettepenningen he was quitting the job only three months after joining the archbishop's office.
"An accumulation of different reasons and a lack of trust mean that I neither wish nor want to continue working as Monsignor Leonard's spokesman," he said in a statement, followed by a news conference later in the day.
They just don’t get it, do they?
Too long a history of closing ranks, I guess.
What does that button say?
It’s a picture of that Alaskan woman with “American Tea Party” written around the edge.