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The Pope Who Revived the Office of the Inquisition
An American Catholic Reflects on Papacy of John Paul II
By JIM CONNOLLY
This week you will be inundated with honorific obituaries to Karol Wojtila,
Pope John Paul II. I am writing not to honor Wojtila; he will (quite
frankly) receive more honor in the next week than any individual mortal
deserves. I write as a witness to the damage this man did during his 26
years as Roman pontiff to the causes of liberty and peace throughout the
world.
There will be few voices such as mine raised on the occasion of Wojtila's
death, but someone must speak the truth. Much of what I say here will be new
(perhaps even surprising) to non-Catholics. To Catholics, I write to remind
them of what each of them knows but seldom acknowledges. Karol Wojtila
forced the best minds out of the Catholic Church, or at least to the extreme
margins of the Church. Wojtila sanctified the baroque reproductive/sexual
bugaboos that infest the Catholic Church while striving to ideologically
lobotomize the Catholic clergy and laity. Although he was a fine ambassador
of good will to Protestants, Jews, and Muslims, Wojtila degraded the
richness of Catholic faith and tradition into mindless displays of loyalty.
An archaic organization that had shown signs of serious promise as a
refreshed (and even potentially progressive) social force under Popes John
XXIII and Paul VI was methodically and ruthlessly drubbed into the mold of
ideological and cultural reaction. The record shows that Karol Wojtila was a
charming man and a master of international public relations, but he was a
political and cultural reactionary to his core
Remember that I and many others did not become Catholics by reason of our
voluntary decisions. Long centuries before my birth, complex systems of
custom and loyalty and political alliances led the Irish and Bavarian
peasants who made up the bulk of my ancestors to become cemented within the
Roman Catholic Church. As an infant, my family inducted me into the Catholic
Church by way of the rite of baptism. As a young child, I was educated in
Catholic schools. In my childhood, loyalty to family and Church stood much
higher than loyalty to nation. Even as I have defined myself as an
individual in a secular society, the ties of ancestry, ethnicity, early
experience and schooling leave me thoroughly "Catholic" in many senses.
Largely because of the actions of Karol Wojtila, it is unlikely that my
grandchildren will be raised as Catholics. For many years I vowed that I
would not cede the Catholic Church to the vile reaction induced and
symbolized by Pope John Paul II. I strove for many years to be one of those
who kept alive the fine things within the rich Catholic religious and
cultural tradition, but in the last two years I have had to acknowledge that
this quest can no longer reasonably be pursued within the current
institution of the Roman Catholic Church. In death, Wojtila's reaction is
likely to entirely prevail, since he transformed the Church itself by
promoting only the most rigid and automoton-like of clerics to positions of
responsibility.
Ignore the press hype about kissing the ground while globetrotting and
recognizing Israel. Forget the ridiculous lie that John Paul II favored
"human rights." Ignore the canned media obituary coverage that strives to
show you that Wojtila (like Nixon, Reagan, Bob Hope, and (soon) Margaret
Thatcher) were "great" international figures. Here is part of the damage
wrought by this arch-reactionary and the regressive forces he unleashed in
the Catholic Church:
1. Among Wojtila's first actions as Pope was to attack freedom of inquiry
and freedom of speech in Catholic universities. Progressive theology,
feminist thought, and "liberation theology" were driven from accepted
Catholic discourse. Catholic universities in Europe and North America have
lost their best scholars in the humanities and have sunk into being
miserable intellectual ghettoes with respect to history, philosophy,
theology, and related fields.
2. Wojtila revived and strengthened the Office of the Inquisition under the
infamous Cardinal Ratziger. The "Holy Office" was near abolition under the
two previous pontiffs, but Wojtila wielded the Inquisition as his special
shock troops in a relentless campaign to silence all varieties of opinion
other than his own. Repression of thought at the level of the diocese and
parish became commonplace again after a blessed reprieve in the 1960s and
1970s.
3. Pursuing his lifelong dedication to fanatic anti-communism, Wojtila
pressured the reluctant Christian Democrats of Italy, Germany, and Holland
to accede to the placement of US cruise missiles in Europe in the early
1980's. As a result of this provocative action by the United States, nuclear
war between the US and the Soviet Union came even closer than during the
Cunan Missile Crisis. The result might have been the nuclear annihilation of
the planet. No credit to Wojtila, the planet survived. Wojtila's claims as
an advocate of peace are false to their core.
4. Wojtila has intervened repeatedly in the electoral politics of his
homeland, Poland, since the late 1980s to bring about government by socially
conservative politicians who pass papal muster on women's rights and
abortion and "anti-materialism" (opposition to the introduction of
consumerism). Despite some cultural and economic promise in the late 1980s,
Poland has become stultified with vast out-migration of educated Poles and
economic paralysis. When they are being honest, migrating Poles will tell
you that Wojtila and the power of the Polish Catholic Church are destroying
their homeland.
5. Wojtila badgered the progressive Latin American bishops and archbishops
(yes, there used to be several of them!) to abandon support of cooperatives,
peasant political initiatives, and community organizing in his infamous
campaign to eliminate "liberation theology." Only safe, traditional,
right-wing candidates were promoted into the Catholic hierarchy. Wojtila
denounced "liberation theology" and drove its proponents in Nicaragua and
many other places out of the Catholic Church.
6. In the United States, Wojtila in 1980 forced Father Robert Drinan, one of
the nation's leading elected progressive politicians, to resign from
Congress (under penalty of being forced to leave the priesthood). At the
same time, Wojtila fostered the alliance of right-wing American Catholic
bishops with the "Christian right" on the issues of abortion, women's
rights, and homosexuality. In North America and beyond, a double standard
has been applied by Wojtila for Catholic clergy involvement in political
causes. Advocating for progressive causes has been forbidden as
impermissibly "political" while advocacy and alliances against abortion,
contraception, and women's rights has been approved as necessary
"witnessing" to Catholic values.
7. Wojtila has systematically purged what were previously culturally and
politically progressive religious orders such as the Jesuits and
Franciscans. These worldwide purges of the orders have been carried out by
appointees Wojtila has made as heads of the various orders. In some cases,
progressive leaders in the religious orders were forced to retire early so
that his handpicked reactionaries could take command.
8. Wojtila has refused to acknowledge what had been a central role of women
in the Catholic Church. He not only opposed the elevation of women to
ministry (despite powerful evidence that women performed such roles in the
early Christian Church), he refused to allow the many orders of nuns to
creatively adapt to modern conditions. As a result, the Catholic sisterhoods
are virtually defunct, and the clerical personnel of the Catholic Church has
been turned into an all-male private club.
9. Wojtila has forbidden the use of indigenous cultural forms in worship
services in non-Western countries. Gone are the marvelous masses and hymns
from Africa and Latin America that inspired Christian worship in the 1960s
and 1970s. In Western countries, he has insisted on restricting the use of
Catholic church buildings to specifically religious purposes despite their
great value as venues for concerts, art exhibits, and community activities.
Multiple uses of churches was a tradition carried down from the Middle Ages.
The great cathedrals of Europe were designed on the assumption of multiple
uses.
10. Despite painfully obvious need and institutional commitments made during
the Second Vatican Council, Wojtila refused to modernize working conditions
for the Catholic clergy. Catholic priests remain the most underpaid and
overworked of denominational Christian ministers. In addition, the input of
priests into promotion processes within the clergy, which traditionally
acted as a counterweight to hierarchical oppression, has been reduced by
Wojtila to a nullity.
11. Flying in the face of historical precedent and the most basic common
sense, Wojtila refused to consider issues of clerical celibacy and the
upgrading of the diaconate to the central functions of the ministry.
Clerical celibacy is (quite frankly) a custom originating in the early
middle ages for purposes of property consolidation, and it has always been
"honored more in the breach than the observance." Furthermore, deacons
performed sacramental functions until modern times. The restriction of
sacramental functions to a celibate priesthood was not even an official
ideal of the Catholic Church until the sixteenth century. Wojtila's refusal
to even permit discussion of issues concerning clerical celibacy and full
sacramental functions for the diaconate has created a vast shortage of
Catholic clergy and turned the most energetic and talented Catholics away
from ministry within their own Church.
12. The ancient tradition of partial autonomy of the "nationes" within the
Catholic Church has been broken by Wojtila. Traditionally, the national
councils of Catholic bishops within each country had considerable leeway in
governing the local churches. Wojtila, unlike any of his modern
predecessors, regularly intervened and overturned decisions by the national
councils concerning details of religious customs and personnel decisions.
13. Wojtila deepened and intensified the reproductive doctrinal fetishes of
his most reactionary predecessors. Official "Catholic" positions on
contraception and abortion are creations of deservedly obscure, personally
bizarre, and sexually twisted theologians resident in the Roman theological
colleges during the nineteenth century. They have no basis whatsoever in the
beliefs and practices of either the ancient or medieval Church. Because of
Wojtila's use of the Catholic Church's influence in international
organizations and its alliance with the "Religious Right" in the USA,
international birth control programs have been starved and gutted over the
last two decades. As a result, tens of millions of African, Asian and Latin
American infants and children have lived and died in misery!
14. Despite Wojtila's external reputation as some sort of "liberal,"
Catholics know that Wojtila is the close ally of the extremist and highly
secretive Catholic movement known as Opus Dei. Wojtila has welcomed and
blessed the practices of Opus Dei, which is a kind of "Church within the
Church." He has promoted clergy who are affiliated with Opus Dei to the
highest of positions within the Church. Opus Dei members congregate in
secret in KKK-like costumes and engage in practices which include wearing
hairshirts and self-flagellation. They maintain a network of secret
monasteries and houses where young Catholics (especially those from wealthy
and prominent families) are taken for intensive indoctrination sessions.
Opus Dei members have been reliably reported by deprogrammed former members
to favor re-ghettoization of Jews and international military crusades
against Islam. US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a key member of
Opus Dei in North America. The most likely successor to John Paul II is the
ultra reactionary Archbishop of Milan, Dionigi Tettamanzi (known in Italy as
the "Beast of Milan") who is reputedly one of the maximum leaders of the
secretive cult of Opus Dei.
15. Wojtila methodically purged the College of Cardinals of any creative or
free-thinking members, and almost all members of the current College of
Cardinals, which will now choose Wojtila's successor, are rightwing clerical
robots appointed by Wojtila himself. The Catholic Church is now guaranteed
to have a self-perpetuating reactionary leadership for the indefinite
future.
16. All initiatives for democratization of governance of the Catholic Church
which began in the 1960s and 1970s were stopped in their tracks by Wojtila.
American Catholics no longer talk about lay input into major decisions of
the Church. The many talented laymen and laywomen who run the day-to-day
operations of Catholic parishes and diocese are treated with highhanded
disrespect, and the most talented have left or are in the process of
leaving.
17. Wojtila cruelly abandoned the Catholics of Northern Ireland to a fate of
political oppression and denial of their basic human rights. The Catholics
of Northern Ireland are the only European Catholics still undergoing
systematic persecution for their religious beliefs. One might have thought
that Pope John Paul II would have championed the human rights of Northern
Irish Catholics. Instead, Wojtila never spoke out against the horrendous
oppression of his coreligionists in Northern Ireland. His sole contribution
to the discussion of Northern Ireland was to condemn IRA violence (without
any corresponding condemnation of British Army or loyalist violence) and
demand a cessation of IRA activities, which would simply have left the
Catholics in Northern Ireland completely helpless to their oppressors.
18. Last but not least, Karol Wojtila proved his utter moral bankruptcy in
his horrendous mishandling of the pedophile scandals in the Catholic
Churches of the United States, Canada, Ireland, Britain, and several other
nations. Wojtila could never bring himself to a clear apology or an
acknowledgement of wrongdoing or institutional responsibility for the
Catholic Church's practices of abuse, intimidation, and rape of tens of
thousands of children and adolescents. Most reprehensibly, Wojtila removed
the independent power of the United States Catholic bishops to discipline
pedophile priests while attributing the horror and filth within the American
Catholic Church to some sort of American cultural malady.
Visiting a synagogue and a mosque, issuing a few statements about Iraq and
Palestine, opposition to capital punishment as an isolated issue--Sorry, but
these and some other (mainly symbolic) "proofs" of John Paul's "humanity"
and his "apostolate of peace" ring very, very hollow to this American
Catholic who has had his tradition and his Church wrenched from him by an
Eastern European rightwing fanatic in Pope's clothes.
_________________
We are legion, voice of anarchy
This is revolution, new disorder
So take my hands and come with me
We will change reality...
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:ikonka31:
)takze nechce sa mi to citat 
)
ale fakt moc textu a najma v angline... kym by som to pochopil tak by som vlasne zabudol o com citam...
