Entry 8:

What is especially rich about the antiquarian outrageousness of the Vatican pronouncement is that few, if any, are the world and religious leaders who will vigorously denounce it for the madness that it is. Yo, is that Joe Lieberman I hear? No couldn't be, there are too many Catholic voters in America and I believe an election is in the offing. Let us also not forget that Città del Vaticano is an independent state, advancing its perverse and self-sustaining ideology. When the Ayatollah Khomeini came out of this bag people opened up a can of whupass on him.

These people never stop, and they never will. A decade ago, because I was raised so-called Catholic (not through any choice of my own) and my fiancee was herself a Polish Catholic, we approached various Catholic churches in New York City about getting married. None would have us. The line was always the same: "You say you're Catholic, but hey, where are your papers. Baby, we need proof." It was of no avail to suggest to them that since both my wife and I immigrated to America when we were children, if any papers did exist they might be difficult to come by. These priests would have none of it. Their point? Try some other religion or denomination 'cause we don't play. My wife and I said to hell with this an ended up getting married at the Riverside Church--interdenominational, interracial, inter alia, whatever--a monument to the "so-called theology of religious pluralism" if there ever was one. Little did we know that we were putting ourselves in "a gravely deficient situation." That is, until ... when my wife and I sought to baptize our first-born, we approached an Upper East Side Catholic church (we're immigrants; we don't play either, we won't stop either). When the priest asked where we were married and we told him, the red-faced drunk was aghast, became highly suspicious, and admonished us to have our marriage "regularized" (his word). He would perform the baptism only on that promise, providing, of course, that the requisite envelope with the $200 donation was subtly and deftly handed over. And, yes, he gave us useful advice for the future: If you live on the West Side (as my wife and I do) and need a Catholic service performed on the East Side, you must get permission from your church; if, however, you live on the East Side (where the big money is), all Catholic churches throughout the city (providing you're even vaguely Catholic) are at your service no questions asked.

What foul spiritual corruption!