On Not Rounding Up the Usual Suspects

Alice Through the Looking-Glass wasn't a fantasy book for children. It was a starkly realistic vision of the future as those of us here in the Archdiocese of Hollywood and our neighbour and suffragan to the south, the Diocese of Disneyland learn anew at least every week.

Let's say you want to teach some catechism at your local parish. Since some members of the clergy have been up to no good of late - surely you've read about it? - you the layman, of course, have to be fingerprinted and a check run on your criminal background. With one exception here in Wonderland: if you are an illegal alien you can skip this sort of nonsense. Just swear on a stack of bishops that you are not a child molester or a criminal and you're home free because, as we know, no child molester - particularly an illegal alien one - would ever swear a false oath.

Even The Times seems a little taken-aback by this one.

[Sorry: no word on whether illegal aliens who kneel after the Agnus Dei have to be fingerprinted. I would guess not. Probably just deported. But we await the official ruling.]