It's official, we suck

This is the president of the Italian national research council.

For those who do not want to read the badly translated article, this person - who is known to be a, well, rather extreme Catholic fundamentalist, and who publicly accused Cardinal Ravasi of not being Catholic enough (because Ravasi stated that there is no incompatibility between the theory of evolution and the Church's theology), stated that

• The earthquake in Japan was "the terrible voice of the fatherly goodness of God";
• Carthage fell because of homosexuals;
• Muslims are out to conquer Europe;
• Islam is a religion "based on violence and tyranny".

And did I mention that he is the president of the National Research Council, which funds much of the Italian scientific research?

Gah. And then we wonder why the rest of the world does not take us seriously.

edited 6th Apr '11 5:48:47 AM by Carciofus

I didn't think there was any incompatability between the theory of evolution and Catholic doctrine.

edited 6th Apr '11 5:52:37 AM by LoniJay

Many of the legends of King Arthur end stating that, when Britain is threatened, he will return from Avalon to defend the realm. I'd imagine by now many Italians wish the same could be said of Garibaldi.

^^ There isn't, obviously, as has been stated officially in a number of different occasions. But de Mattei disagrees, and clearly he feels that he is more competent than the Pope on this matter.

edited 6th Apr '11 5:53:15 AM by Carciofus

He thinks he's more Catholic than the Pope. That takes some ego.

Oh...dear.

Italy does seem to have an unfortunate habit of placing lunatics in important positions.

And? It just proves that, the least christian a person is, the better.

See? Those statements have nasty implications.

You know who else blamed the world's problems on entire groups?

...

Yeah. That's how bad this guy is.

So he's as evil as the local, stereotypical red necks? That's hard to believe.

edited 6th Apr '11 8:00:24 AM by Usht

The funny thing is that creationism is not really a hot topic in Italy. No one that I know of has a problem with evolution, and this includes my 80 years old aunt, who is a nun (granted, she is also seriously awesome, and not at all bigoted. But still).

edited 6th Apr '11 8:08:10 AM by Carciofus

Oh, he will. Just not now.

edited 6th Apr '11 8:20:07 AM by Barkey

Is the entire Italian population baked?

This is kind of lame, I guess. Is it wrong that the article makes me kind of happy that America now seems slightly less insane by comparison?

At least Garibaldi's still making those tasty biscuits of his.

I don't know. We do have our crazies, too. I'm not naming names though.

The similarities in opinion between some of these really out-there Catholics and the Reverend Ian Paisley entertains me.

How original.

o _ o

The fact that there are still people who support Berlesconi is reason enough for the world to just turn to Italy and just shake their head.

I like Italy, its beautiful, the people are nice the weather is lovely and all of the buildings are pretty. The only problem is that the entire thing is so corrupt and insane that it actually makes Englands political system look good by comparison.

See, when I think "Carthage", "Homosexual" isn't the first thing to spring to mind.

Have you read Umberto Eco's essay on getting a new driver's license?

edited 7th Apr '11 7:08:18 AM by inane242

loltheitaliangovernment

No, and I can imagine the kind of venal pocket liners that tend to stuff that area.

And I think you could (maybe) blame Carthage fall on "child murdering" or perhaps on the fact that Hannibal sucked at getting to attack Rome.

It's been official for many years.

IIRC, Berlusconi's the lesser evil.

Also, the Catholic Church is agnostic on the evolution question, though most people accept it as fact, sans anything smacking of atheism. You can be a creationist if you want, but you'll still get facepalmed. Myself, I believe evolution is the most scientifically-supported theory out there.