'CEPT FOR THE POPE MAYBE IN ROME

While we're on the subject of Catholicism, I think I've spotted the next phony Obama scandal:

Unbelievable. http://t.co/O82gqlqfZN

— Callista Gingrich (@CallyGingrich) November 27, 2013

The link goes to this Washington Times story:

The Obama administration, in what's been called an egregious slap in the face to the Vatican, has moved to shut down the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See -- a free-standing facility -- and relocate offices onto the grounds of the larger American Embassy in Italy.

The new offices will be in a separate building on the property, Breitbart reported.

It's a "massive downgrade of U.S.-Vatican ties," said former U.S. Ambassador James Nicholson in the National Catholic Reporter. "It's turning this embassy into a stepchild of the embassy to Italy. The Holy See is a pivot point for international affairs and a major listening post for the United States, and ... [it's] an insult to American Catholics and to the Vatican." ...

You know what other country moved its Vatican embassy in the same way, in 2011? Ireland. Anyone want to tell me that happened because the Irish are anti-Catholic bigots? (I will note that Ireland and the Vatican did have friction on the subject of priest sex abuse.)

The British did the same thing in 2005. Please note that the British prime minister at the time was Tony Blair -- whose wife is Catholic and who later converted to Catholicism himself.

Maintaining separate Italian and Vatican embassies is bizarre -- it would be as if Congress declared itself a sovereign nation and it became necessary for other countries to maintain separate entities in Washington and "Congressistan" that were maybe a ten-minute walk from each other.

But I'm sure this will be trumped up by the wingnut media as a sign that President Obama hates Catholics, because no stick that can be used to beat Obama is ever left unswung.

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.... and, right on schedule, this is the lead story at Fox Nation.