I was going to make another comment but after reading this whole article I decided not,too. The titles a bit misleading, too.

From the article it does not seem like he is declaring war on Christianity. It seems more like a statement saying that he thinks most Christians are lazy. Making such a sweeping generalization may be the reason his statements are shocking for some people.

But if he's Catholic...where's that put HIS work ethic? Ha ha. What wins out?

Good point. Maybe he had a senior moment.

Actually, that's a really interesting discussion to be had. In FACT I reckon in this climate a person who was doing a thesis on the work ethic in various religious texts could even get a little funding! Now I think about it is true that most religions in the world do either consider having to work (particularly at physical labour) a punishment or the freedom from it as a major part of heaven. The thought of a pantheon of deities with their own work to do (some of the Egyptian gods had 'jobs') is really fascinating.

The interesting thing to me was that different cultures have different views of work. Personally, I like going into work and doing a good job, but you look around at the slackers and the work dodgers and you wonder how anything ever gets done. I think Germany and Japan have a much healthier attitude about work than the rest of the world (that I've seen but I haven't seen much). The differences are more likely on a personal basis rather than drawing lines based on religion or nationality.