OK, can we stop pretending that we're friends with these guys now?

For the last twenty years, we've heard all kinds of conciliatory crap towards Jews coming out of the Vatican. It was all horsepuckey, of course, no matter how much Rabbi Marc Gelman wanted to believe it. They believe we killed Christ, they've always believed we killed Christ, and when he comes back, we'll get him again!

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Now I'm not one of those people who sees anti-Semitism around every corner, like Woody Allen in Annie Hall talking about someone saying "Jew eat?". But all this nicey-nice stuff from the Vatican always struck me as creepy. I knew the shiv was there at the ready, and so it is:

A website quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism, considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is.

The comments, which have been denied by the bishop, follow a series of statements from Catholic churchmen alleging the existence of plots to weaken the church and Pope Benedict XVI.

Allegedly speaking to the Catholic website Pontifex, Babini, 81, was quoted as saying: "They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers."

He's not all wrong. We do NOT want their church. Even those of us who are nonobservant as Jews want no part of a church that throughout its history has stood for persecution of heretics, the amassing of power, the cynical abuse of mankind's quest for meaning, and harbors and protects pedophiles.

If you believe that Y'shua of Nazareth actually existed, it doesn't matter whether you believe he was divine or just a cool guy with a message that we should all be nice to each other. The fact of the matter is that the deeply corrupt organization housed in Italy and populated by creepy old men does their messiah no service and pays him no tribute.