Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Why wait for the old Messiah to rise from the dead when we've got a new one amongst us? That's the tenor of a blog called, in all seriousness, Is Barack Obama the Messiah? A scroll down along the entries does suggest that the author lacks a sense of irony. Also missing is any mention of the infamous Reverend Wright. Talking of irony, here's a marvellously ironic quotation from that great theologian, Pope Benedict XVI:

"Even with all his humility, Augustine was certainly aware of his intellectual stature. But for him, even more important than great highbrow works of theology was bringing the Christian message to the simple. This deepest intention of his, that guided all his life, emerges from one letter written to his colleague Evodius, where he shares his decision to suspend for the moment the dictation of the books of De Trinitate, 'because they're too exhausting and I think they will be understood by few; even more urgent are texts that, we hope, will be useful to many' (Epistulae 169: 1, 1). So it was more useful for him to communicate the faith in a way understandable to all than write great theological works."

Benedict's old-school theology would not go down well at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago: "Jesus is black. Merging Marxism with Christian Gospel may show the way to a better tomorrow. The white church in America is the Antichrist because it supported slavery and segregation." The one word there that's sure to alienate Benedict is "Marxism" because ever since the Italian terror group the Red Brigades murdered Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978, the Catholic Church has been at odds with the left. The killing of Moro is all but forgotten now, but it had a huge impact. It ended the church's cautious post-Vatican II dialogue with the left and it made Pope John Paul II's forceful challenge to Communism inevitable. All that history will be on hand if the representative of the old Messiah meets the new Messiah next month in the US.