O'Reilly Condemns Pope—Again

THE WASHINGTON DISPATCH, April 12—In his April 12 online column in the Washington Dispatch, Fox TV pundit Bill O'Reilly continued his ongoing criticism of Pope John Paul II—which has included Church teaching on sexual morality—by lumping the Pope in with other critics of the U.S. war on Iraq and missunderstanding the sex abuse crisis (see editorial, page 8).

O'Reilly wrote: “It should come as no surprise that the fall of Saddam Hussein is causing an avalanche of repercussions all around the world. While no one can predict the future, the immediate past is fairly easy to catalog, and Saddam has taken a lot of people down with him. ... Apparently, John Paul II is on a personal crusade to destroy the Roman Catholic Church in America. He's still allowing cardinals like Roger Mahony in Los Angeles to stonewall priest sex-abuse allegations. Then the Pontiff has the chutzpah to call the Iraq war ‘immoral.’ A miracle is needed.”

Pope's ‘Coded’ Rebuke to the United States?

THE GUARDIAN NEWS SERVICE, April 22—Pope John Paul II's Easter message was “a coded rebuke to Washington” regarding U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, the British news service said.

On Easter Sunday the Pope urged Iraqis to take the lead in rebuilding their country in close accord with the international community—a phrase that usually refers to the United Nations rather than the U.S.-led coalition.

John Paul irked many hawks in the United States with his vigorous efforts to keep the United Nations in the driver's seat in the disarmament of Saddam Hussein's regime.

“With the support of the international community,” the Holy Father declared, “may the Iraqi people become the protagonists of their collective rebuilding of their country.”

The Pope called for “peace in Iraq” to thunderous applause, the news service reported. It described the Holy Father's statement as an attempt to push Washington to speed up the creation of a reliable, native civilian government in the Arab country, which is now under full-scale U.S. occupation and the authority of retired American Gen. Jay Garner.

CNN ‘Kills Off’ the Pope

THE DAILY RECORD (U.K.), April 17—An error on CNN's Web site led to announcements of Pope John Paul II's death—along with those of Ronald Reagan, Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela, Bob Hope and U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney, the British paper reported.

The obituaries appeared for some 20 minutes before they were spotted and removed, by which time thousands of users had read the stories, which ran with photos.

A source at CNN expressed chagrin: “Everyone knows a lot of obituaries are prepared in advance, but to publish them is a serious error. How would you feel if you saw your picture next to the year you were supposed to die? Someone is going to get into trouble for this.”