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So, is this what the church does when it isn’t covering up for pedophiles? Seriously, come on.
Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops, including that of a Holocaust denier whose rehabilitation sparked outrage among Jewish groups.
The four bishops were excommunicated 20 years ago after they were consecrated by the late ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent _ a move the Vatican said at the time was an act of schism.
The Vatican said Saturday that Benedict rehabilitated the four as part of his efforts to bring Lefebvre’s Society of St. Pius X back into the Vatican’s fold.
But the move came just days after one of the four, British Bishop Richard Williamson, was shown in a Swedish state TV interview saying that historical evidence “is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed.”
historical evidence “is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed.”
‘historical evidence “is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed.”’
I’m sure it was all just a big accident and an apology will straighten it all out. I think the historical evidence will show tons of instances–probably about six million of which involve Jews but only about four or five million other instances so clearly it wasn’t just a deliberate action against only Jews–where it was all a big misunderstanding. It was a war, after all, and mistakes are made. Wars are messy. Collateral damage is inevitable and all that. And “6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed” isn’t likely anyway, since many were just inappropriately fed, placed on extreme diets, contracted diseases, were shot for something that was certain to have been before a military tribunal or some other appropriate governing body, and so forth. The man is right: the historical evidence is clear.
As is the absolute evil that is the Vatican.
If a novelist invented a Pope half as strange as Ratzo, his work would be considered an insult.
Schism. Oh no, can’t have that.
Well would you expect any different from a Nazi Pope?
What? What?
Suddenly Bill Donahue seems like such a great guy compared to the official Catholic Church.
C’mon, guys, I know this sounds bad, but it’s not as if they’re harboring pedophiles or something.
Oh, wait . . .
We should be proud when these Hutton Gibsonites deny Democratic politicians communion
ed overstates it, but one would think that a German pope who as a kid was (mandatorily, of course) in the H!tler Youth, might have the sense not to reinstate a freaking Nazi bishop.
Of course, it’s clear that Ratzi doesn’t mind Nazism, so long as noone remembers the social gospel or tolerates Teh Ghey.
Dammit, when I was a Jewish Atheist kid in Seattle in the 1980’s, if one talked about the intersection of the Catholic Church and Politics, it meant the Sanctuary Movement, martyrs for human rights in El Salvador, Revolution Theology, and the Social Gospel. Our local Archbishop (Ray Hunthausen) was welcoming to Seattle’s fairly active Gay community. Since then, of course, that Archbishop was exiled to Montana by the Vatican and the Church has completely reinvented itself to look like Ratzi and the other Dark-Ages Opus Dei types. The Church was seen as a force for Good then, even if we were aware that the Pope was a reactionary.
P.S. Looking up Archbishop Hunthausen on Wikipedia, I see that Ratzi’s would-be brownshirts are at play (emphasis added with boldface):
Material that used to be there about how Hunthausen angered the knuckledraggers by showing respect for gay folks has also been removed, though indications that Ratzi et al slapped him down over the issue remain. Time to finally get a Wikipedia account and engage in some editing wars, I guess.
Actually over the last 2,000 years most Popes have been as strange or stranger than Benedict XVI. Go back over papal history, especially during the 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries, and you will find popes venal, ambitious, ignorant and arrogant. Just like Benedict the XVI.
I mean it is only appropriate that the Vatican catch up to radical Islam in its attempt to drag civilization back to the 14th Century.
I do not know this for a fact but it is my understanding that John Paul II put then Cardinal Ratzinger in charge of eliminating all traces of Liberation Theology from the Catholic Church.
Er yes, I meant “Liberation Theology” and instead wrote “Revolution Theology”. Sorry about that; not something I think about that often, especially since the movement seems to be more or less defunct and I was never a Christian let alone a Catholic.
How unhooked from reality does a person have to be in order to believe that he is the supreme and infallible representative of God, the ruler of the universe?
And how whack does one have to be in order to believe that about any other person?
I suppose I should be pleased. Nothing will hasten the demise of the Roman Catholic Church faster than a policy of strict atavism.
Andrew Sullivan (a Catholic) wrote about this as well. On the one hand, I appreciate and admire the fact that many Catholics don’t “stand” with the Vatican on every single issue. On the other hand, when do you realize that if an organization you belong to does so many abhorrent things, you might just want to quit the thing?
To paraphrase Jello Biafra/Dead Kennedys:
“Nazi Pope, Nazi Pope, Nazi Pope – FUCK OFF!!!”
As long as the GOP Pope remains installed, I NEVER want to hear another right-wing complaint about Farrakhan or Jeremiah Wright.
I dare Bill Donahue, I fucking DARE him, to defend this decision.
daniel rotter says: “I dare Bill Donahue, I fucking DARE him, to defend this decision.”
I would suspect he would accuse those complaining of being anti-Catholic, and leave it at that.
Garbage like this just makes me sick. I grew up in the Church, was an altar boy (The answer is no, never), and attended a Jesuit College (where I learned about Liberation Theology). It just make me physically ill to see my Church doing this and the other crap noted above. I haven’t considered myself Catholic in several years now.
“I would suspect he would accuse those complaining of being anti-Catholic…”
Yeah, the accusation would be without merit, but that certainly wouldn’t stop Billy D. from making it.
Just validates my journey from Catholicism to Agnosticism to Atheism…