Excessive Zeal, Unduly Rigid. That's what She Said.

So the Pope issued an Encyclical Letter Caritas In Veritate, which I have no intention of reading. But that won't stop me from taking a section out of context and getting all worked up about it:

On the part of rich countries there is excessive zeal for protecting knowledge through an unduly rigid assertion of the right to intellectual property, especially in the field of health care. At the same time, in some poor countries, cultural models and social norms of behaviour persist which hinder the process of development.

I was gonna hafta respectfully traverse the criticism of Chapter 2, Section 22 at least because the Pope has failed to establish a prima facie case of knowing what the hell he is talking about. But then I realized that I had linked to the Pope's letter from Patently-O'Shenanigans. And much bigger brains than mine had already fired up the artillery:

If the Pope wants to promote development in the world's poorest countries he should start by relaxing his stance on artificial birth control.

Oh Snap!