The Real Challenge Facing Benedict, Catholic Church

So the current run of stories surrounding the Pope make a story where none was before. Before long, Geoffrey Robertson writes his legal brief, Hitchens and Dawkins retain him as counsel to go after the Pope, and headlines spring up speaking about a possible arrest of a Pope. But that's unlikely to happen, since any actual evaluation of the facts in a court of law would exonerate the Pope. So what's the real goal? The underlying aspect of the story, which seems secondary, but really is of the first importance: they're quietly but steadily challenging the Vatican's right to count as a nation, with sovereignty and a place in international law and the affairs of nations, and the Pope's ability to call himself a head of state. In other words, they're busily breaking down the papal independence that Popes have fought for down through the milennia, since the time of Constantine. Papal temporal independence was the main point of the papal states, armies, and material wealth. Take that away, and we have reverted to the legal status of the early Church--that is, completely at the mercy of the powers that be according to the law. This is the real story. This is the real substance of the current attacks on the Church.