The cover of the Pope's new children's book

Emperor Palpatine Pope Benedict XVI has published his first children’s book! The pope, apparently already an author of many volumes, has taken it upon himself to educate young ones about his religion. Maybe entice them to get into it a bit more. Granted, I can’t really tell you what its about (the title is Gli Amici Di Gesu?!) because I don’t even know two words of Italian, but from the cover illustration, it looks like it’s about Jesus. If I had to guess, I would say its about the friends of Jesus (Amici IS one of the words I know!). So I’ll have to trust Shelf Life‘s brief summary:

It features a collection of the Pope’s descriptions of Jesus’ relationship with his “first companions,” including the original 12 apostles, Matthias, and St. Paul.

(That sounds like a terribly boring book to me, but heck, what do I know. If I were a kid, this would not sell me on Catholicism.)

And, side note, when does he have time to do this? I mean, come on–if Obama doesn’t have time to write a book about ‘Bo, how does the leader of the entire Catholic Church have time to do this? Can’t he at least cop to a ghostwriter? Everybody does it.

Don’t worry, English and Spanish versions are forthcoming. Maybe some nice US editor will spruce it up a bit… make it look less, well, church-y. Its a kids book after all! Can’t wait to give it a go. I hope they have a nice Judas chapter…

Okay, religiously-offensive post over.