Hi, Mark - yeah, that cherub/sheriff confusion was the most glaring mondegreen in the lyrics I posted. The version in the Digital Tradition is far better, but I like the "beanie" line that's missing from the DT.
Does anybody have the Patrick Sky recording, so they can give us definitive lyrics?

It took me a good, long time to catch on about Dick Gozinnia and Hugh Jardon. I suppose that's just as well. BMI attributes the song to Michael Francis Hunt, and lists the title as "Giovanni Montini the Pope." You should be able to arrange licensing through http://www.songfile.com, but their database isn't working tonight so I couldn't check that out.

Martin, I suppose I could oversimplify things and say that the fundamental difference between liberal and conservative Catholics is their view of authority. Liberals believe they should think for themselves, even though they belong to a church which generally shares a common belief system. Conservative Catholics believe that all religious thinking should be based on the dictates of Rome. I would say that conservatives tend to emphasize legalism and obedience in their view of religion, and we liberals tend to be a bit "fuzzy" and put our emphasis on free will and principles. I guess it's obvious that I prefer the liberal point of view, but I do have to say that it sometimes seems that liberal Catholics lack substance and identity. If I were to get cute in my criticism of liberal Catholics, I could say they're like Unitarians who receive communion. Actually, I call myself a "radical moderate" - nobody agrees with me, but I see value in both tradition and in individual responsibility and thinking.
The priest scandal has certainly had an impact on Catholics, but not as much as one might think. The percentage of priests involved in scandals is somewhere between two and five percent.

-Joe Offer-