This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Boston Globe's Pulitzer-winning series of stories that explored the extent of the Catholic Church's complicity in a horrifying, decades-long cover-up of child rape by the clergy. The Phoenix broke that story nearly a year earlier, in a series that you can read online here

We've long been able to depend on Mel Gibson for his thoughtful insights into the world. He always seems to know what's what, whether he's decrying an entire religion or dispensing wisdom about a woman's wifely duties, damn it. Give him a soapbox and Mel will know what to do with it. And the tainted fruit doesn't fall far from the tree of good and evil, apparently.

As Greater Boston commuters may have seen, the Metro ran the Bridget the Midget story on page one this morning. I don't blame them; any time a police officer gets busted for vacating duty in order to snap Facebook pics with porn stars, it's a definite contender for prime real estate.

Over on Morrissey Boulevard, though, Globe editors had something much sexier to run with.

The Colorado Independent has the story: the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has instructed pastors nationwide to distribute anti-healthcare-reform literature in church and to preach against it from the pulpit.

I'm no Catholic, but with the Church's opposition to same-sex marriage (in an unholy alliance with Mormons and evangelical Protestants) and now the basic human right of healthcare for all, I'm not sure what being Catholic is anymore.

"I believe that all women have the right to kiss my ring."

I gagged over a Page One story in The Globe this morning about Cardinal-Archbishop Sean O’Malley and his stubborn pro-life views. Apparently, he’s excited about Obama but worried that the president-elect will open drive-thru abortion clinics at all major intersections.