Breda O’Brien was wittering on in Saturday’s Irish Times about Pope Benedict XVI’s Christmas message to his staff being misinterpreted by all and sundry. Her comments, however, are no distraction from the vicious homophobia of the current Pope.

Hot on the heels of a recent, similarly-themed opinion piece by his friend Ronan Mullen, where couples living in sin were resoundly chided, David Quinn of the Iona Institute has spoken out against Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly’s call to end “unfair discrimination” against unmarried straight couples.

As the Irish government seeks figure out just why the electorate rejected the Lisbon Treaty, its post-referendum navel gazing has led it to appoint a religious conservative to the committee charged with considering the outcome of the vote. It looks like Ireland is far from separating Church from State.

Dying for the sins of humanity? Sharing Christian charity? Tolerance and love for fellow human beings? Religious conservatives have more important things to worry about: In today’s modern world, nothing is too mundane or absurd as to escape the attentions of the crazies of the religious right in their preparations for Armageddon. We have a quick look at five classic examples from the past few years.

Eileen Flynn passed away earlier this week. She had been dismissed in the 1980s from her job as a teacher in a religious-run school, and the courts in Ireland upheld the school’s decision. Following her death, the same conservatism exists in the Ireland of 2008.

Paster condemns Katy Perry to the Inferno!

The Irish Times reports today that members of Italy’s mafia meted out a punishment of gang rape against one of their number they suspected of being gay. The man was raped while in prison two years ago by eight others, resulting in him requiring medical treatment. None of his attackers were punished by the authorities.