What A Laugh This All Is...
Listen, I don't really want to rain on anyone's parade (well, ok, maybe a drizzle), but you're telling me that Ratzinger was the best guy they could get to be Pope?
He came out against John Kerry and any voters in favor of Kerry:
He has helped hide the sexual abuse problem and actually slapped away a reporter's hand:
Yep, sounds like the perfect guy for the job.
He came out against John Kerry and any voters in favor of Kerry:
A footnote to the letter also condemned any Catholic who votes specifically for a candidate because the candidate holds a pro-abortion position. Such a voter "would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for holy communion," the letter read.
He has helped hide the sexual abuse problem and actually slapped away a reporter's hand:
The accusers say Vatican-based Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who heads the Vatican office to safeguard the faith and the morals of the church, quietly made the lawsuit go away and shelved it. There was no investigation and the accusers weren't asked a single question or asked for a statement.He was Hitler Youth member and went into service for Germany during World War II.
He was appointed by the pope to investigate the entire sex abuse scandal in the church in recent days. But when approached by ABCNEWS in Rome last week with questions of allegations against Maciel, Ratzinger became visibly upset and actually slapped this reporter's hand.
"Come to me when the moment is given," Ratzinger told ABCNEWS, "not yet."
"Cardinal Ratzinger is sheltering Maciel, protecting him," said Berry, who expressed concerns that no response was being given to the allegations against the man charged with sex abuse. "These men knelt and kissed the ring of Cardinal Ratzinger when they filed the case in Rome. And a year-and-a-half later, he takes those accusations and aborts them, just stuffs them."
Yep, sounds like the perfect guy for the job.
7 Comments:
He didn't come out against "... any voters in favor of Kerry." He came out against Catholics who voted for Kerry because he's pro-choice. If the unborn are persons, then pro-choice politicians and those who support them on that basis are "guilty of formal cooperation in evil." If the unborn aren't persons, then the politicians and their supporters aren't guilty. Anyway, Catholics can offer communion to who they want and withold it from who they want. Primitive Baptists won't give communion to John Kerry, the pope, you, me, or the head of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Ratzinger was compelled by law to become a Hitler Youth like all the other 14-year-olds, then got drafted like all the other 16-year-olds. Who knows what he knew and when he knew it? Failure to desert the German army before one had a reasonable chance of getting away with it without being shot is hardly the worst crime in the world.
The Maciel thing, on the other hands, seems quite a bit more robust. The Legionaires are pretty controversial even apart from this. I dunno why that sort of thing is necessary. I find being a Catholic plenty difficult without jumping into Opus Dei/ the Legionaires/ Saint Miscellanious' Anti-Freemasonry Brigades/ whatever. Especially what with the pedophile priests and the bishops who cover for 'em...
~Supernatural Rabbit Scribe
Scribe -
The letter came out during the start of 2004 presidential campaigning and was sent only to US Cardinals. There are two people in the forefront: Bush and Kerry. Who do you think he was referring to? You don't think he was using his position of power to try and scare some Catholics from voting for someone who supports the right to choose?
As for the whole Hitler Youth thing, there is certainly a lot of controversy surrounding it. I'll leave that up to people to make their own opinions about it, but I do know that the whole "I was just following orders" thing gets ignored when it comes to our soldiers, so why should it be any different for other people?
As for the assist in sweeping allegations of abuse under the rug, I have no sympathy. John Paul II should have immediately come out against all such abuses and priests should have been tossed out on their asses. They come out against homosexuality as a mortal sin, yet allow priests who have been accused SEVERAL TIMES OVER of sexual assault on children to simply move around to new parishes. Makes me sick and they should be ashamed of themselves.
To be fair about the Hitler Youth thing, it WAS Nazi Germany. At some point, you did as you were told or you got a bullet in the face. Yeah, there were definitely people who got off on Hitler's message, but there were also plenty of people who went along to protect themselves and their families. So, in the case of the draftees, it was less "just following orders" and more "just trying to keep my superiors from killing my family". And toward the end of the war, people (including children as young as 12) were just dragged out of their homes, shoved into a uniform and sent off to the front lines.
The sex abuse thing is far more troubling to me. The fact that the former Pope and his close advisors spent so much time villifying masturbation and the use of condoms, but didn't seem to care much at all about the sexual abuse of children speaks to a serious lack of moral center in these men. For someone who speaks out so vocally against "moral relativism", Ratzinger (or Pope Benedict XVI or Pope Whatever Pi) should be making the prevention of child molestation his top crusade. What is more morally relative than the belief that the raping of children isn't so bad?
"You don't think he was using his position of power to try and scare some Catholics from voting for someone who supports the right to choose?"
'Course he was. The question is, "Is he right? Should we be scared?" And the answer to that question turns on, "Are the unborn persons?" and the larger question of "Is there a God who cares one way or the other?" "I was just following orders" should be ignored if you're guarding a concentration camp, but not if you're a 16-year-old compelled to dig anti-tank ditches like Ratzinger.
"Makes me sick and they should be ashamed of themselves."
Me too. We are.
~Supernatural Rabbit Scribe
It amazes me how the superpowers of the Vatican (Pope) and U.S. (Bush) are so mirrored in their "religious-based" leadership hypocrosies. They claim to lead in the name and teachings of God/Jesus. Yet, there is nothing humble or honest in the majority of their efforts. The blatant ignorance of the vast priest/child rape scandal is a prime example.
Another example that hits closer to home is the utter disregard our administration has for our own children. My 3-year old daughter is developmentally delayed and is considered a special needs child. So I can tell you that I've experienced first-hand the government's underfunding of special needs programs, medicare, and school funding in lieu of appeasing special interest groups and funding erroneous wars.
Maybe this was a bit of a digression from Moxie's original topic, but I just find the abuse of power at the expense of children, in the name of God no less, to be utterly deplorable.
The guy's 78 years old. Clearly the other cardinals want the stress to kill him off.
There was already an article I perused that was discussing his age and health status. It won't be as long a reign as JPII, but it will be a scary reign nonetheless.
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