Oh these hypocrites: she speaks the truth and they call it "bad manners"

Singer Lauryn Hill bashes abusive priests during Christmas concert at the Vatican

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Grammy-winning singer Lauryn Hill launched into an unscheduled tirade against priests who abuse children during a Christmas concert at the Vatican attended by top clergymen, news reports said Sunday.

Hill read a lengthy statement criticising the church and its leaders during the Saturday night concert, where she was one of the featured performers in an annual Christmas benefit to raise money for Roman churches.

Several Italian newspapers on Sunday ran translations of her rant, which was delivered in English. They quoted her as saying there was "no acceptable explanation for defending the church" and that the faithful should ask for blessings from God, not men.

"I realise some of you may be offended by what I'm saying, but what do you say to the families who were betrayed by the people in whom they believed," La Repubblica newspaper quoted her as saying. "And what do you say to those children who were violated in body and mind?"

She was referring to the church sex abuse crisis in the United States, in which the Roman Catholic Church has been rocked by accusations that top church officials knowingly moved known abusers from parish to parish.

Calls placed to Hill's label, Colombia Records, in New York were not returned Sunday.

Among the prelates in the audience Saturday night was Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the pope's vicar for Rome and the head of the Italian bishops' conference, as well as his deputy, Monsignor Rino Fisichella.
La Repubblica quoted Fisichella as saying Hill had betrayed the organisers of the concert by her "insults" and showed she had no respect for the organisers or the place where she was performing. He called her outburst an act of inexplicable "bad manners."

The concert was held in the Vatican's Paul VI auditorium, where Pope John Paul II usually holds his Wednesday audiences. The pope was not in attendance.

The Vatican said Sunday it had no comment on Hill's outburst, and noted that the concert was organised by the Roman vicariate, not the Vatican. The Vatican merely let Ruini's office use the hall because of its size, a Vatican spokesman said.

Hill, a former member of the rap trio the Fugees, set a record for female artists in 1999 when she won five Grammy awards for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Critics praised the album for its incisive lyrics and synthesis of rap and soul. The album sold 6 million copies and influenced a new school of soul singers.

In 2002, she released MTV Unplugged 2.0, which interspersed folk-style songs with nine spoken-word interludes in which Hill talked about her personal and artistic problems.

The Italian private broadcaster Mediaset had exclusive rights to film the concert and planned to broadcast it on Christmas Eve, as it does every year. There was no word Sunday about whether it would air Hill's outburst during the broadcast.