Malebolge

If the Muslims called for a fatwa on Pope B16 because he quoted Byzantine Emperor Dude, can you imagine what they would do to anyone who publicly recites Dante's Divine Comedy? Dante Alighieri, in his masterpiece, put Muhammad at Malebolge, the domain name of the Eight Circle of Hell (reserved for the frauds). Of course, as payback, Dante also put his enemies and anyone else he had a beef with on various Hell levels and ditches...

Within the 8th circle are 10 ditches, and just like computer games, the higher the ditch level, the more fires, brimstones, and hell-ness one would find. So there's the prophet with his son-in-law Ali, on Circle 8 Ditch 9, getting their bodies whacked and re-whacked. Their sins? Muhammad for the discord and division he unleashed on earth, and Ali for the discord and division he caused within Islam itself:

He looked at me, and opened with his hands
His bosom, saying: "See now how I rend me;
How mutilated, see, is Mahomet;
In front of me doth Ali weeping go,
Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin;
And all the others whom thou here beholdest,
Disseminators of scandal and of schism
While living were, and therefore are cleft thus.

- From Canto XXVIII

For Delia, the Italian text:

Mentre che tutto in lui veder m'attacco,
guardommi, e con le man s'aperse il petto,
dicendo: "Or vedi com'io mi dilacco!
vedi come storpiato è Maometto!
Dinanzi a me sen va piangendo Alì,
fesso nel volto dal mento al ciuffetto.
E tutti li altri che tu vedi qui,
seminator di scandalo e di scisma fuor vivi,
e però son fessi così.

In Dante's inferno, the only ones worse than the frauds are the traitors.

I like Pope B16 - not because he is warm and fuzzy, but because he is my Pope, for better or worse. After the experts have weighed in and the offended have branded their swords, I realized one thing: if it ever comes to defending His Holiness, I would volunteer for the crusades. I know, I know... even I was surprised at this self revelation. After all, haven't I made fun of B16 repeatedly and disagreed with a lot of his opinions?

I guess in the end, you protect your family, even though most of the time, you cannot stand them. And the Catholic Church IS my family. I am angry at the radical Muslims who are calling for my Pope's head because... well, he said that someone said 700 years ago that Islam is violent...and they don't like it so they want to kill him???!!! Don't call me violent or I'll kill ya. Even in the world of kindergarten logic, that wouldn't fly.

SO please, NO MORE SOUNDBYTES about this Pope thing today! Delia, you can play with your biblical bobbleheads now.


Delia Gallagher