Troubled singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor has insisted that Jesus would burn the Vatican to the ground if he came back to earth at the present time.

Miss O’Connor, who once famously tore up a picture of the late Pope John Paul II and later posed as a Catholic priest for a period, has insisted that she would help Jesus carry out this act of violence.

Quite how Miss O’Connor is so sure of Jesus’ behaviour is unclear. Nowhere in the scriptures, for example, does Christ reveal himself as a man of violence.

It’s amazing how many people decide on the particular course of action that they would like and attribute that behaviour to Jesus. It’s like a priest writing in one of the papers recently insisting that Jesus wants higher taxes in Ireland!

While Sinead O’Connor’s rant has been gaining her a lot of coverage in the media, most commentators are ignoring the threat of violence that is explicit in her remarks. There is a real danger that ruthless and unthinking commentary can lead to real acts of violence or intimidation against Catholic people.

I wonder how people would react if a well-known singer was calling on a mosque to be burnt down for example? I hope they would reject such a careless call as they ought to do to Miss O’Connor’s latest vile rant.