BLACK PRESIDENT TO MAKE WAY FOR BLACK POPE? "The election of Barack Obama as the first African-American US President could pave the way for the election of the first black Pope, according to a leading black American Catholic. Wilton Daniel Gregory, 60, the Archbishop of Atlanta, said that in the past Pope Benedict XVI had himself suggested that the election of a black pontiff would 'send a splendid signal to the world' about the universal Church. Archbishop Gregory, who in 2001 became the first African American to head the US Bishops Conference, serving for three years, said that the election of Mr Obama was 'a great step forward for humanity and a sign that in the United States the problem of racial discrimination has been overcome'. Like Mr Obama Archbishop Gregory comes from Chicago, and was previously Bishop of Belleville, Illinois."

Less than a week after we noted that Pope Benedict XVI, who's looking mighty sad these days, should be doing things other than reading the Bible with celebrities for a week straight on Italian television, the pontiff heeded our call and expressed an almost Marxist sentiment at yesterday's meeting of over 200 bishops:

Benedict says that "now with the collapse of big banks we see that money disappears, is nothing and all these things that appear real are in fact of secondary importance." He urges those who build their lives "only on things that are visible, such as success, career, money" to keep that in mind.

How much you wanna bet most Catholics continue to ignore this one while running right along with the "gay unions are false" thing?