And a side helping of doom

In my remarks about the Roman earthquake scare, I forgot completely to mention another voice of reason.

The apparently sane view of Franceso Verselli, for example, who doesn't think there's anything to worry about. Until you figure that his reasoning is that if the Pope's around, there's no danger. I've nothing against Pope Benedict, who seems a holy, thoughtful and decent man with a hard job to do. And obviously I hope there's no earthquake at all, and none in Rome, and none near Pope Benedict. But there's evidence that just trusting in there being holy things around doesn't save you. If you don't want to pay attention to the Bible on the matter, try this list of earthquakes. Especially 801, when the roof of St Paul's fell in. Although, to be fair to Francesco, it's not recorded that the then-Pope was in there at the time. So maybe there's something in it.

Oddly enough, when the Black Death raged in his base at Avignon and throughout Europe, Pope Clement VI summoned his wise men to explain what caused it. And the assorted astronomers told him that it was due to an alignment of three planets. 560 years later, it seems to have been on a similar basis that Raffaele Bendandi predicted the 1923 earthquake. And now people in Rome are panicking on the same basis. Plus ca Change, as they say in Rome....