Yes what every you say - impossible in 1981 but magically possible in 1987.
You do know that Pope Pius XII was palling around with Hitler - in fact he was know as Hitler´s Pope are you saying that he would palled around with Hitchens too.
The Pope is visiting Malta next Sunday. Now Malta is 98% catholic there is not a place on earth that has such a concentration of really active Catholics. But this is what will greet him if thy do not clean it up:
And did you also know that the Vatican City is a state because of the treaty signed in 1929 with Mussolini who gave the church 109 acres and Castel Gondolfo .
Better be careful banding dictators names around for your enemies.
Palling around with Hitler? I suggest you get familiar with the history of the Third Reich. The Church made a concordat with the Hitler government, trying to get along with Hitler by agreeing, for one thing, to accept the abolition of the Center Party. The agreement lasted about as long as other agreements made by Hitler. It was mad to protect Catholic education in Germany, and within two years he Nazis were busy taking over education as they did every institution. All kids were forced into Nazi programs. When priests and others protested, they were locked up. Then they started to take over Catholic publications, and to discredit the priesthood by accusing them the way your friend is, of sexual crimes. Yeah, real pals, the Nazis were.