After bizarrely likening a nuclear reactor to ‘a big stove’ this week, the Philippine Representative wanting to reopen the Bataan nuclear power plant (BNPP), Mark Cojuangco, finds himself in trouble with the Vatican.

While comparing massively complex and dangerous nuclear power plants to kitchen cookers, ‘Cojuangco told Philippine Daily Inquirer editors and staff that while some Filipino bishops were opposed to the BNPP, the Pope and Renato Cardinal Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, supported the peaceful use of nuclear energy.’

Big mistake…

Pope Benedict XVI supports the use of nuclear energy but only for improving the medical field and helping the poor but not for generating electricity, Balanga Bishop Socrates Villegas said Tuesday.

In an e-mail to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Villegas refuted Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco’s claim the Pope and Renato Cardinal Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, supported the use of nuclear energy to produce electricity.

A good guideline, if you’re going to distort someone’s words for propaganda purposes, is to make sure that the person saying them doesn’t happen to be one of the most famous and powerful people on the planet, whose every word is recorded and quoted. It’s worth remembering.