Irish leader Enda Kenny accused of being rude to Pope Benedict - VIDEO

Marcustam -- I agree completely. Why is our prime minister visiting a state set up by Mussolini?

Alois -- I don't know about his mother, but his father (or Poppa as you call him) died nearly 40 years ago.

Lucky Momma and Poppa Kenny were`nt seated nearby !

Sounds like the reporter was offended FOR the Poop. He needs to get out more.

What rudeness? O'Shea writes, "leaders from different European countries ... were invited to an audience with the Pope," but then O'Shea adds that Mr. Kenny "did not actually meet him." Not actually meeting him is NOT an ***audience with***-- which means speaking with and listening to him. If Mr. Kenny received an invitation to an ***audience with*** the pope and then was manipulated into being an ***audience TO*** the pope, the rudeness, indeed the arrogance, was not Mr. Kenny's! In other words, the Taoiseach and his European colleagues were a captive, silent audience for the pope's speech! Who was rude to whom? Were there flashing signs telling the audience when to applaud also?

that's what you get when you invite turkey schmucks

He was very rude. Far from being slow to clap it appeared that he didn't clap at all. Shame on him.

A lecture on ethical foundations from the Vatican? That's like a lecture on sobriety from Anheuser-Busch.

(…more) A notable bit of advice the Pope gave in his pretty short speech: “In this way, with confidence, not resignation, civil and political activity must be given new incentives to seek solid ethical foundations, the lack of which in the economic field has helped to create the current global financial crisis. Your political, and institutional commitment must not, then, be limited to responding to the requirements of market logic. Rather, its central and indispensable goal must remain the search for the common good, correctly understood, and the promotion and protection of the inalienable dignity of the human person”. A big rap on the knuckles therefore to Kenny and other leaders who jump to the Troika's market logic tune, instead of looking after the correctly understood common good of the dignity of human beings under their governance. With atheists Gilmore and Quinn for Govt colleagues, is it any wonder that Kenny fiddled with his phone outside Rome and not listened to the import of the speech, confirming that he is no longer a proper Christian leader and should not have been a member of the CDI group?

Kenny attended the Papal meeting as part of the large group of Christian Democrats International (CDI), drawn from all over Europe, not as an individual. I can’t believe that the Leader of my State would be so disrespectful of another Leader of another State during his speech. Would he dug out his phone camera while Mr. Obama or Queen Elizabeth was speaking in front of him? The Pope’s speech was directed to the CDI as a whole, as Christian political leaders (see news(dot)va for full speech), encouraging them to face up to their political responsibilities as Christians in modern society. (More…)

Why would you expect anyone to give any respect to the man who has overseen the cover up in the catholic church of the sexual abuse scandal.Personally...I think kenny should have done a Naomi Cambell and bounced his phone off that hypocritical number one protector of paedophiles, head...and then smacked him one on the nose...at least once.

The only reason that politicians go to see Ratzo is because it will help them to keep their greedy snouts in their respective Nation Troughs by getting reelected. Most of these 'leaders' and 'his awesomeness' couldn't give a toss that poverty stricken pensioners are to be mugged in order to pay the debts of crooks.

We had a bishop last week explaining that he thought a priest having sex with a child was taking the relationship a bit too far. How's that for knowing how to behave correctly?

""Michael Kelly of the Irish Catholic newspaper asked, "Was Enda Kenny trying to be rude or does he just not know how to behave correctly?"" It`s a bit rich for the any member of the Irish church newspaper to be holding forth on what is or isn`t "correct" behaviour. Maybe if he spent more effort in his pages putting forward tangible excuses for the societal rejection in Ireland of Church teaching and the Catholic Church`s declining influence, Mr. Kelly`s employers might be better served.

At best Enda's behavior while the Pope was speaking was, rude and lacking the basics of good manners and decorum. At worst, it shows poor or no leadership skills, disrespect and arrogance . Looks like he isn't as smart as he thinks, just very polished.