Now this Benedict has decided to make the pope Pius of the Nazi era a saint. This Pius is the man who among other things never said a word when the Jews in rome were rounded up and shipped out to the death camps. But to go on, what does it mean to be made a saint. It is ridiculous. To be made a saint the person in question has to have "heroic virtues." What are these? Do I have heroic virtues? This morning here in the terrible snow and ice of Chicago I took the dogs for a walk and fell twice. I felt pretty heroic when I got back to the house.
But they have me for sure on another thing. This definitely rules me out for sainthood. Along with having heroic virtues a saint has to carry out two miracles. What is this? Two miracles? One is not enough. But two? What constitutes a miracle? Bringing somebody back from the dead? Toilet training my friends Jack Russell toilet in a day? Making our 12 year old Volvo stop costing us money for repairs? One miracle or two miracles, it is preposterous. It is nonsense. You wonder how can anybody believe this stuff.
But the Catholic Church is no joke. It is an organization of immense power and wealth. Initially it was the Church of feudalism. As capitalism developed and came to be the dominant system it was flexible enough to become the Church of capitalism. This is where it stands today. An organization of immense power and wealth in the service of capitalism. Its main service is to hold back its hundreds of millions of members from thinking there is an alternative to capitalism and to keep them passive in the face of the suffering that capitalism imposes on them.
A few decades ago a wing developed in the Catholic Church called liberation theology. This believed the Church should help the poor and take on the rich, especially in the former colonial countries. The leadership of the Catholic church crushed this internal movement with the greatest ferocity. It was driven out of the organization. Along with that the Catholic Church actively assisted the right wing US backed military dictatorships in Latin America which waded through the blood of the trade unionists, peasant activists, socialists who were trying to make life better for working people. We must not be fooled, the Catholic Church is a vicious right wing capitalist organization.
I am leaving aside the Catholic Church's horrific history of child abuse and sexual and physical abuse and repression in this post. But these are all connected to the way that the Catholic Church rules and organizes itself in the interest of capitalism and its own power and privileges.
Sean.
3 comments:
Have you no real knowledge of the historical record that you would join in the defamation of Pius XII? The Pope has no army.What could he have done to stop Hitler and the Nazis? What did Churchill and FDR do to stop the holocaust? They knew as early as 1938 about the slaughtering of the Jews.
At the time of his death the state of Israel declared Pius XII a righteous gentile. Golda Meir, primeminister of Israel at the time, publicly stated that Pius XII was responsible for saving 840,000 Jewish lives...far more than any country or other organization. Let us not also forget that 5 million Christians were killed by the Nazis....among them half of all Catholic clergy in Poland (@20,000). Do you really think that Pius would have let his priests be killed just to hold onto his money? Come on!
I suppose I have a lot to say about pope's. First a factual detail. The correspondent says the pope has no army. But the pope does have an army and a state.
I will keep my remarks short. First of all the popes of the Catholic Church are unelected dictators over a giant undemocratic organization which sees women as inferior. This organization was at one stage the church of feudalism. Around this period it participated in the Spanish inquisition with its mass slaughter and torture. And it developed the idea of "just wars" which justified the slaughter of the peoples in the colonial world in order to steal and plunder everything that was not nailed down. Mass torture and slaughter and plunder. Where does the correspondent thing the splendors of the Vatican came from?
As the Catholic Church saw the way the wind was blowing it abandoned feudalism and became the church of capitalism. As such it helped establish the idea that capitalism with all its horror was the only possible system. In passing let us remember that Nazism was the form that German capitalism took to preserve its interests. The Catholic Church supported and supports the capitalist system. Its hands are not clean from Nazism. Then the Catholic Church more recently helped US Imperialism crush the workers and peasants movement in Latin America. providing resources and laundering money. The Catholic Church is an utterly unprincipled right wing corrupt anti women organization conscious of its role in helping capitalism stay in power.
You quote to me what some zionists say about popes. These are the people who are slaughtering the Palestinians. And many in the zionist movement in turn in turn saw the expulsion of Jewish people from Eastern Europe including Germany as a plus for their zionist project. Please do not insult my intelligence.
Finally on the Pius boy. If his record to be a saint, whatever anybody could ever imagine a saint would be, is so good, why is the Vatican refusing to open the papers and documents on his record during the Nazi period. There is something fishy going on. They are hiding his record. Maybe our correspondent could get these papers for us.
In my country the Catholic Church has just had to go along with the resignation of four bishops whom it was propping up for years. These four are taking the fall for the Church overall covering up the child abuse that they knew about all along. Over 170 priests, according to a recent government report, were involved in rape and abuse of children and the Catholic Church covered this up. These people, the priests and all who covered it up are criminals. The rapist priests were moved around from parish to parish to try and hide what was going on. This increased the number of children who were raped. But for decades the Catholic Church including Pius all knew about the child abuse in the church and it is impossible for them not to have known about the child abuse in Ireland. It was so extensive. This includes your Pius.
On the millions of non Jewish people who were killed by the Nazis. The correspondent claims them all as Christians. Many of these people were socialists and communists who fought the regime. And by the way, this present dictator in the Vatican was a member of the Hitler Youth. They always add he had no choice. But hundreds of thousands of Germans fought the Nazis and died in doing so. This was the honorable choice he had. But he did not take it.
Sean.
The Catholic Church and Mr.Nomine are all aglow about the Jews in Israel. This Church, the church of the inquisition likes Jews now. But what is behind this? Mr Nomine's support for the Jews in Israel stems from the fact that the Zionists are fulfilling the prophecy as explained in Christian mythology. The second coming is brought nearer by the Zionists occupation of this land.
And what of the Jews when Mr. Nomine's savior comes. Well, we will have a choice, accept this Jesus as our savior or burn in hell for all eternity.--Good thing I don't believe in all this stuff.
And what is the Catholic Church doing re the Anglicans? It's intervening to win the anti-gay, anti women, right wing elements.
Whatever happened to the Ambrosia bank anyway?
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