Italy Charges Website Critical of Pope With Offending Catholicism

In Italy, an alternative media website was charged by prosecutors with causing offense to the Catholic religion. According to a report in The Age (Melbourne) published yesterday, the offending website published a photo montage of Pope Benedict XVI dressed in a Nazi uniform. Italian law imposes a jail sentence of up to one year for the offense. This charge comes only a few days after Italy's Constitutional Court invalidated laws imposing harsher penalties on those who slander Catholicism than on those who insult other religions.