On Mon, 02 May 2005 23:45:34 -0500 in
alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic, Alan W. Craft (Alan W. Craft
<mauritius4@hotmail.com>) said, directing the reply to
alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic

On Mon, 02 May 2005 08:41:53 +0100, Therion Ware

From The Times (2 May 05)

The apartment was sealed after the death of John Paul II. Pope
Benedict broke the seal after his election, but until yesterday had
lived in St Martha’s, the Vatican hotel used by cardinals during the
conclave, while the papal apartment was renovated. He moved in to the
apartment with his piano, books and, according to Italian media
reports, two cats.

"Cats have always been Pope Benedict’s passion," said La Stampa. "The
caricature of him as a remote and austere hardliner is clearly
misplaced."

Corriere della Sera quoted Sister Ingrid Stampa, the Pope’s
long-serving German housekeeper as saying that "the only cats he has
are made of porcelain". However, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the
Archbishop of Genoa and formerly the Pope’s deputy at the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the Pope "often talks to cats
at length, usually in German, and they follow him home, fascinated".
Cardinal Bertone said that the Swiss Guard had even complained that
because of the Pope "cats are invading the Holy See".

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20709-1594048,00.html
Requires fairly painless signup.

How clever of you, Mr. Ware, to tap into what you believe
to be genuine superstitious concerns regarding felines, especially
among the religious...

...not.

I think you grant me too much ambition in as much as I thought the
piece above more amusing than anything else, and of course being a cat
person myself was mildly pleased to read of Benedict XVI's attraction
to cats, bearing in mind that all super villains think cats an
essential tool of the trade, even if they're habitually white pure
Persians and not black toms of uncertain and recursive lineage.

I have two myself, pics available here:
http://www.video2cd.co.uk/images/catimages/cat7.jpg
http://www.video2cd.co.uk/images/catimages/susie1.jpg

Mind you, since you bring up the subject there's no doubt that
Christian folklore regards the cat with a little more than "some
suspicion" (and at times this has led to campaigns of virtual genocide
against them), whereas Islam is sympathetic to cats.

On Mon, 02 May 2005 23:45:34 -0500 in
alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic, Alan W. Craft (Alan W. Craft
<mauritius4@hotmail.com>) said, directing the reply to
alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic

On Mon, 02 May 2005 08:41:53 +0100, Therion Ware <autodelete@city-of-dis.com> emanated:

From The Times (2 May 05)

The apartment was sealed after the death of John Paul II. Pope
Benedict broke the seal after his election, but until yesterday had
lived in St Martha’s, the Vatican hotel used by cardinals during the
conclave, while the papal apartment was renovated. He moved in to the
apartment with his piano, books and, according to Italian media
reports, two cats.

"Cats have always been Pope Benedict’s passion," said La Stampa. "The
caricature of him as a remote and austere hardliner is clearly
misplaced."

Corriere della Sera quoted Sister Ingrid Stampa, the Pope’s
long-serving German housekeeper as saying that "the only cats he has
are made of porcelain". However, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the
Archbishop of Genoa and formerly the Pope’s deputy at the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the Pope "often talks to cats
at length, usually in German, and they follow him home, fascinated".
Cardinal Bertone said that the Swiss Guard had even complained that
because of the Pope "cats are invading the Holy See".

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20709-1594048,00.html
Requires fairly painless signup.

How clever of you, Mr. Ware, to tap into what you believe
to be genuine superstitious concerns regarding felines, especially
among the religious...

...not.

I think you grant me too much ambition in as much as I thought the
piece above more amusing than anything else, and of course being a cat
person myself was mildly pleased to read of Benedict XVI's attraction
to cats, bearing in mind that all super villains think cats an
essential tool of the trade, even if they're habitually white pure
Persians and not black toms of uncertain and recursive lineage.

I have two myself, pics available here:
http://www.video2cd.co.uk/images/catimages/cat7.jpg
http://www.video2cd.co.uk/images/catimages/susie1.jpg

Mind you, since you bring up the subject there's no doubt that
Christian folklore regards the cat with a little more than "some
suspicion" (and at times this has led to campaigns of virtual genocide
against them), whereas Islam is sympathetic to cats.

The story goes that the Prophet Mohammed had a tabby cat which fell
asleep on the sleeve of his robe (how odd!).

Rather than disturb the cat, he cut off the sleeve of his robe when he
answered the call to prayer. Which was probably quite sensible in as
much as going to prayer with a cat attached to your arm is very
probably Khamr if not Haram.

Further and according to the Hadith, that cat once alerted Mohammed to
danger and hence tabby cats have the 'M' mark on the foreheads in
memory of his thanks to that cat.

Which I suppose is no sillier than any other myth, and better than
many in as much as it encourages ethical behaviour towards animals.

Buddhists are big on cats as well. I sometimes think that were I to
turn religious, I'd either become a Buddhist or Roman Catholic. But
that's as maybe and need not concern us here.

Still, that said, I wonder if Benedict XVI will do anything for the
Colosseum cats. Dunno if you've ever been to Rome. The Vatican is of
course worth a visit, but in the Colosseum you'll find thousands -
well lots - of cats. They are fed by little old Italian women and a
strange Englishwoman, on spaghetti. They seem to like it.

Do you think the RCC might give a contribution to the Colosseum Cat
Birth Control project?

Whenvever will you learn to dissect and discern the belief structure
of mankind, at last?

Oh that's - by coincidence - inversely proportional to your ability to
recognise the amusing as such, and laugh rather than censure, so I
suppose my ability in that area must be approaching the infinite.

Learn to laugh Alan, or at least smile, it'll do you a power of good.

The gates of alt.atheism slowly swung open, and there stood Therion
Ware <autodelete@city-of-dis.com>,who intoned thus:

From The Times (2 May 05)

The apartment was sealed after the death of John Paul II. Pope
Benedict broke the seal after his election, but until yesterday had
lived in St Martha’s, the Vatican hotel used by cardinals during the
conclave, while the papal apartment was renovated. He moved in to the
apartment with his piano, books and, according to Italian media
reports, two cats.

"Cats have always been Pope Benedict’s passion," said La Stampa. "The
caricature of him as a remote and austere hardliner is clearly
misplaced."

Corriere della Sera quoted Sister Ingrid Stampa, the Pope’s
long-serving German housekeeper as saying that "the only cats he has
are made of porcelain". However, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the
Archbishop of Genoa and formerly the Pope’s deputy at the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the Pope "often talks to cats
at length, usually in German, and they follow him home, fascinated".

Wer schrieb "das kleine rote Buch"?