April 8, 2010

Separated at birth, black cassock edition

This was the front page of the New York Times website a few days ago:


The dude in the main photo is a Vatican priest who landed in some matzoh ball soup* for comparing the criticism of the Catholic Church's latest sex abuse scandals to persecution of the Jews. Which, as you might imagine, didn't sit too well with a whole lot of Jewish people. And, apparently, it wasn't particularly well received by advocates for sex abuse victims, either. I have to imagine that's a pretty rare double-whammy in terms of groups being offended by a single comment.

Upon reading the story, I had two main thoughts:
1) That was sort of a dumb thing to say; and
2) I'm almost sure I've never met Raniero Cantalamessa before, but, golly he looks familiar.

And then I thought: Sure! I know where I've seen this guy before! The short white hair, the close-cropped white beard, the glasses, the black turtlenecky thing, the somewhat imperial stance behind a lectern on a stage. Why, that's not Raniero Cantalamessa at all! It's Steve Jobs!


Well, I guess if the priest gig doesn't work out, Raniero could always move to Cupertino and hawk iPads.

* That's Jewish hot water. 10 points if you figured it out without checking this footnote

3 comments:

DGB said...

I'm not sure if I should be impressed at the comparison or pissed off that you dare besmirch the good name of Steve Jobs.

Your escalator operator said...

DGB - Maybe just impressed that I used the word "cassock" in a blog post headline?

bugs said...

it's jewish hot water with good flavor - not just hot water. but funny.
i agree a little with DGB.
i don't know what cassock means, but i'll be impressed with you.