Pope not really a head of state

The title on an April 17 Associated Press story on the pope's visit to America ("Pope: Sex abuse scandal sometimes handled badly") was an understatement to say the least.
 
Pope Benedict XVI's very mention of sex abuse brings to mind his being protected from prosecution on the basis of diplomatic immunity. Or have we forgotten about our government telling a Texas court that the pope should be given immunity from a lawsuit accusing him of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys by a seminarian?
 
The court was told that Benedict, as pope, enjoys immunity as the head of a state – the Vatican -  and allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be incompatible with the United States' foreign policy interests.
 
Here our government that claims separation of church and state "gushed" over the head of a state but who is in reality the elected head, pope, of the so-called Holy See (central government of the Roman Catholic church) that, after the Italian takeover of the Papal states in 1870, desires continued recognition as a sovereign entity and personality in international affairs.
 
Doesn't our Constitution say leave religion to the religions?
 
One minute we are expected to be thinking he is head of a state – the Vatican - and then how convenient for the Catholic religion that the next second he's the leader of the Roman Catholic church.
 
Folks, it is not God that is getting the glory here! This is simply a pompous show to be seen of men. Nowhere in the New Testament do you find that the church has a state - as the Catholic hierarchy claims for the Vatican. What I am seeing is certainly not the church we read about in the New Testament!


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BOB LOVELACE
Yuma