Let’s see what that zany infallible-spiritual-leader-of-a-billion-people is up to now!
Proving that you can’t teach an old Pope new tricks, the former Hitler Youth has once again publicly praised Pope Pius XII, who has been accused of collaborating with the Nazis during World War II to turn over Italy’s Jews to the concentration camps. His remarks were delivered in the context of delaying the beatification to sainthood of Pius XII, which has been a rather divisive issue among Catholics. Rather than dropping the beatification process altogether, Papa Ratzi agreed to postpone it for several years while “further research” was done to determine the extent of Pius XII’s role in the Holocaust.
Pius XII, seen here with Adolf Hitler during his tenure as Papal Nuncio to the Third Reich, had associations with the Nazis dating back to the 1920s and Hitler’s “Beerhall Putsch”. The Roman Catholic Church of that time was virulently anti-Semitic, and Hitler, who was raised as a Catholic and considered himself to be Catholic throughout his life, signed a treaty with the Vatican, negotiated by then-Cardinal Pacelli, that granted the Catholic Church in Germany special privileges that allowed them to continue holding Masses, while other churches were shut down. As Pope during the war, Pius XII was well-informed about Nazi concentration camps, Jewish deportations, and other atrocities. His inconsistent response — sometimes aiding Jews, sometimes not — and ties to Hitler have earned him much scorn and denunciation. The beatification of Pius XII along with a concurrent beatification of Pope John XXIII has been seen as a way to engender detente between the “conservative” and “liberal” wings of the Vatican, sort of like Barack Obama naming Hillary Clinton AND Robert Gates to his cabinet.
But wait, there’s more!
Over and over again, Papa Ratzi has made it clear that he doesn’t cotton to Jews and Muslims all that much. He’s paid some lip service to improving understanding between religious groups, but there’ll be no more of that nonsense, buster, not while he’s on the beat. Ecumenism, my pasty, pimpled, silk-covered ass!
He’s apparently not too fond of that Intarweb thing-a-ma-jig either. In fact, it seems like the Catholic hierarchy in general isn’t too fond of letting the proles learn how to read. The Bishop of Lancaster, England calls education a “sickness” responsible for virtually every evil of the modern age.
And politics? Fuhgeddaboutit! Former South Daktoa Senator Tom Daschle, who is about to join the incoming Obama Administration as Secrety of Health and Human Services, has practically been ex-communicated from his church by his local bishop after a nasty public dispute about abortion rights based on a doctrinal note written by Benedict while he was still a cardinal, forbidding Catholics from voting for candidates or issues that oppose basic Catholic values. (You’ll recall that this was also the rationalization used by the priest who wanted to forbid communion to anyone who voted for Obama).
It should come as no surprise, then, that the Catholic Church in the United States is beginning to look a lot more like the Republican Party now that Karl Rove and Sarah Palin have had their way with it: fewer members, skewing older and more rural, and with the highest disapproval rating of any religious group in the country. But not to worry, because they’ll make him a saint when he’s dead anyway!
