The Pope obviously can't take a joke.

Nor, it seems, can Italy's Justice Ministry, for they've given the green light for prosecutors to use a fascist era law against comedienne Sabina Guzzanti, who recently took aim at his Holiness:

Guzzanti is accused of "offending the honour of the sacred and inviolable person" of Pope Benedict XVI.

The satirist and comedian, during a routine at a rally in Rome in July, condemned the Vatican‘s interference in issues such as gay rights.

“Within twenty years the Pope will be where he ought to be, in Hell, tormented by great big poofter devils — and very active ones, not passive ones," she said.

Now the Rome prosecutor has been given permission to proceed against her under the 1929 Lateran Treaty.

The treaty, between the Vatican and the Italian government, was signed when fascist leader Benito Mussolini was in power.

It stipulated that an insult to the Pope carries the same penalty as an insult to the Italian President.

Even Guzzanti's father, right-leaning MP Paolo Guzzanti, wagged a finger at the green light, saying "[This is] a return to the Middle Ages. Perhaps my daughter should be be submitted to the judgment of God by being made to walk on hot coals."

OMG! We've got the best news! Anti-gay fascism's alive and well in Rome. Super, right! It's all the rage with the ever-trendy, Mussolini-praising, Holocaust-loving teenaged hooligan masses. And, no, they weren't being ironic:

Right-wing extremists shouting pro-fascist slogans ransacked a gay cultural association in Rome.

A statement from the association, the Mario Mieli Homosexual Cultural Circle, said a large group of youths had burst into the club Thursday evening and trashed the premises. After club members intervened, the vandals ran off, shouting slogans praising Holocaust-era death camps and Benito Mussolini.

Locals blame a tense pre-election climate for the invasion. We blame bad parenting.