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.
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