oops...

My wife and I had dinner last night with some friends from London, one of whom is a senior surgical registrar at a teaching hospital.

The conversation naturally turned to the Pope’s visit which had caused the hospital a few problems. Along with staff demanding time off for “religious reasons" - not all of whom were Catholic it seems - there was the inevitable traffic congestion and a veritable flood of minor injuries sustained in the ‘crush’.

I happened to mention that a senior Vatican official had claimed the HIV virus could easily pass through the pores of a condom. Something which had resurfaced amongst the fringe coverage of the Pope’s visit.

The look of utter disgust on his face was truly something to behold, as were his words.

“Jesus Christ! I thought priests were supposed to be educated men!”

There really wasn’t anything I could have said to that even if I hadn’t been laughing my head off along with everyone else.