Catholic Stupidity

The residents of the Vatican City have said many stupid things in the past, but few of them can get much stupider than this:

"Politics needs religion," Cardinal Bertone said in a speech published by the Vatican mouthpiece L'Osservatore Romano. "When instead God is ignored, the ability to respect rights and recognise the common good begins to disappear."

Are we talking about the same religion that started the Great Crusades? The God who sanctioned witchhunts? The Church that persecuted Galileo when he proved wrong Catholic scientific beliefs?

One of the fundamental principles of the Enlightenment was the seperation of Church and State, that the church (or any religious institution) played no role in the political development of nations and governments. It was done with good reason, too. Perhaps the Cardinal should look to the places where religion does play a big role in politics. Places like Nigeria, the US South, and, of course, the Middle East -all of whom are backwards in comparison to the rest of the world.

However, maybe he does have a point -so we can be shown again how bad religion is in politics.