[elfman2]

"I did not say anything about the level of blasphemy. The epsiode was balsphemous both because of the obscene reference to Virgin Mary, either direct or to her statue, and to the pope. If you don't like Catholic theology, don't become Catholic."

I wasn’t aware that there were different levels of blasphemy like different levels of rape. Virgin Mary statues are not sacred so unless the irreverence showed toward one was condemnation of the actual sacred Virgin Mary, it was not blasphemous.

If you want people to treat your sacred entities with immunity from condemnation, don’t accept a theology that claims a living person is sacred. No one outside your faith will accept that a politically active man is immune from it. We may agree that his treatments here was offensive, base or provocative, but not that all men in his office should be immune from it. Many Popes deserved worse, and I doubt they’ll be the last.

[annalex]

Again, you are the one who brought up the hypothetical levels of blasphemy in your 66, not me.

Statues and icons of saints are sacred. Priests are holy men, and so is the Holy Father the pope. The idiots who think otherwise should educate themselves before they make movies, no educate me what is and what is not sacred according to their own little brains.

As individuals popes and priests have flaws and those can be discussed. If the episode satirized flaws of a particular pope as an individual, that would have been appropriate. Instead, it put a generic pope in an obscene context, and that is not appropriate.