The Pope and the Terrorist: Two Misguided Beatifications (News, Switzerland)
May 9th, 2011 | 6 responses
Is the Catholic Church – and specifically the revered deceased Pope John Paul II, as deadly as al-Qaeda and its now-dead leader, Osama bin Laden? Columnist Patrick Etschmayer of Switzerland’s News writes that between outlawing condoms and covering up decades of child abuse, the former pope did at least as much damage as the terrorist mastermind now residing at the bottom of the Persian Gulf.
For Switzerland’s News, Patrick Etschmayer writes in part:
Over recent days, two faces from the past caught up with us and nearly ran us over. First, Karol Wojtyla, better known as John Paul II, who was beatified; and Osama bin Laden, the terrorist prince who, since 2001, has put his terror stamp on the new decade, and was just killed in Pakistan by a team of U.S. Navy Seals.
For some people, the two personify two opposite poles of human nature. For others, the hero of Catholicism and the prince of darkness are unlikely brothers in spirit. The author must confess that he sees himself as part of the latter group.
Poland’s successful struggle against communism and massive Vatican support for the trade union Solidarity are to this day largely attributed to Wojtyla. The fact that this support materialized on the back of fraud, murder, fascist secret orders and criminals – think the Banco Ambrosiano scandal – is mercifully forgotten in the current reporting. Wojtyla operated like a politician with nerves of steel, unscrupulously pursuing his party’s agenda. The fact that two key figures who could have blown the whistle were murdered (Roberto Calvi and Michele Sindona) is therefore significant.
The beatification is even more absurd in light of the fact that, thanks to the strict condemnation of condoms in the fight against AIDS – and the lie propagated by the Vatican that “rubbers” would spread sexual diseases even further – thousands, if not tens of thousands of people, may have died. In other words, more than even bin Laden ever murdered. And that’s to say nothing of the inadvertent boost to an already exploding rate of population growth, which is a great burden for the African continent – and is certainly to the liking of bin Laden and his fundamentalists.
READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AND MORE GLOBAL REACTION TO BIN LADEN’S DEATH AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
6 Responses to “The Pope and the Terrorist: Two Misguided Beatifications (News, Switzerland)”
Is there no bottom to the depths that moral relativists WON’T sink to?
Lol yea, that article was a pretty big stretch. At least he could have tried a bit harder to make me bite. Osama told people to go out and kill people, Popes merely dispense ignorant guidance that result in people dying as a by product. At least these days. Maybe he was talking about one of the Popes from 700 years ago?
Or maybe say the pope was the Osama of child molestation. You know, he didn’t do it himself, but he ran the organization that trained and protected a bunch of guys that go out into the world and do it. Gotta give me something to work with.
This article does a disservice to those of us who think that John Paul II did more to damage the Roman Catholic Church than any Pope since Benedict IX. I left the Roman Catholic Church in large part because of the beatification. John Paul certainly did a fair amount of evil in his day, but he was not a terrorist, by any stretch of the imagination.
Religious organizations progress much slower that society in general. An organization as large and power as the Catholic church progress even slower. I think JP did his best to bring the church forward. He did allow and most likely approve some terrible things, but I blame the organization more than I blame the man leading it.
But I do agree his beatification was a bit much. More marketing campaign than divinity.
slamfu, yes. work with. right. pjb, I think I understand. This article doesnt touch on other reasons that many hold that jpii and ratzinger brought such pain to so many in the Americas, to children and their parents across the world, to those whose dimes and dollars –and backs– built the churches they took such pride in building with their own bones and blood… and these sold off to cover all kinds of church wrongs and payoffs. Ireland, Africa, the Americas, the native tribes continued to suffer under jpii, not only some would say for lack of intervening decisively, but for lack of caring– for lack of heart feeling as a father and mother give all to care for, protect, free their children from those who would harm, kill, enslave them. It’s a long long story. Sainthood is rushed, many believe because the coffers of the vatican are suffering badly from mismanagement, regalia excesses, payoffs of many kinds. Just like all other nations at the moment who are public about their deficits. By contrast, just to mention one, it took over five hundred years for little brown Juan Diego to be canonized. Hundreds of years for a single native american to be canonized. Its a far bigger set of stories. neither jpii nor ronald reagan caused the fall of communism. the people did, especially the martyred, so so many died and were disappeared in ‘the cold war.’ It was their progeny who brought down communism by quitting working all across the soviet states; they literally collapsed the economy that was a mess to begin with, with commisars taking booty, driving bmws’ and letting the people eat salt.
‘more marketing campaign than divinity” … what a gift to see ourselves as others see us. Thanks SL