On Dennis Miller's CNBC's program Thursday night, Christopher Hitchens blamed Pope John Paul II for AIDS and accused the late pontiff of being an apologist for Saddam Hussein--at least that's the impression I got. The revisionists have arrived early for work. While the positive coverage outweighs the negative coverage in the week leading to today's papal funeral, don't bet on this trend to continue. Until 1963, Pope Pius XII was thought of as a saintly figure inside and outside the flock. That year, playwright Rolf Hochhuth transformed the pope into an accomplice of the Third Reich in The Deputy. As the following 42 years attest, death was a bad public relations move for Pius XII. My suspicion is that it will be for Pope John Paul II as well. While John Paul II sought to canonize Pius XII, others have anathematized him as Hitler's Pope. The calumny doesn't stand.

I really find it unfathomable that Hitchens has a writing career. The man is truly abysmal. He can't write (he's only lucky to have been born British), he can't reason, and he is wholly bigoted against religion. He wrote a book in which he demonized Blessed Mother Teresa and took to calling her the "Ghoul of Calcutta." The man has absolutely no sense whatsoever and should only be taken as an unsufferable pompous a--.

That is a fantastic article on Pius XII Dan, thanks for sharing it.

Hitchens needs to go on anabuse. He is an alcoholic and sometimes he talks and thinks like one. He has a writing career the same way Marilyn Manson or Sid Viscious had singing careers.

Wow, what a jackass this man is. That's all I really have to say about it.

I remember Campus Report from back when I was at UIUC, for my first year of college. I am at UIS now, and have wanted to be a distributor for that newspaper, here in Springfield.

As for Hitchens, he has a habit of blasting people right after they passed away... He did the same thing for President Reagan, and Mother Teresa. It is unfortunate that so many people who are supposed to be conservative have been singing his praises these past several years.