Monday, April 5, 2010

Pope Benedict XVI: Stop Mentioning the Jews

Sweet Jesus!

Haven't they suffered enough? First, it was being thrown out of their homeland. Then, the Egyptians. Then, it was the Exodus. Then, the Romans. Then, it was pogroms and other draconian measures that segregated Jews from the societies that they were an integral part of. They were launched by (among others) the Spanish, Portuguese, Russians, French, Ottomans, Italians, and Germans. Then, the Holocaust, the formation of the State of Israel, and its battles with its neighbors to establish itself within the neighborhood of the Middle East. Now, it's you, the Pope.

Let's get one thing straight, Josef Ratzinger: Giving tacit approval to priests who are guilty of lewd acts with many children, to continue with their jobs and not defrocking them, and allowing these men to commit more crimes is not similar to the systematic execution of more than eighty percent of European Jewry. No matter how you try to spin it, or how long you think about it. It won't happen.

The Nazis were excoriated because of their violations of human rights towards Jews, Gypsies, ethnic Poles, political and religious opponents, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet civilians and POW's, and disabled people. In fact, there was a document called the Geneva Convention formed in the aftermath of World War 2 to establish global standards for humanitarian treatment of the victims of war because it had been found that the Nazis did not treat their victims as human beings. For all time, their political organization will be associated with the slaughter of 11-17 million people, a psychotic totalitarian, and a cult of personality surrounding the political elite which made it possible for few citizens to object to their murderous rampage through Europe.

The Church is being excoriated because of the Vatican obfuscated its involvement and acceptance (Silence is consent) in the cover-up of certain priest's pedophilia. Betraying the dogma is not the same as following the perverted system that justifies the torture and mutilation of others based on social, religious or political differences that the Nazis subscribed to. The actions of the Catholic priests should have consequences, if only because when any ordinary person acts in a reprehensible manner, they are held to account.

I am biased though. I don't believe that the Vatican is the bella figura, nor do I believe that priests have a mark on their soul that excludes them from man's accountability. What I think is that because of their dual role as spiritual adviser and man, they have a special responsibility not to abuse their power, which comes in the form of trust, and if that is not possible, they do not belong in that capacity.

Don't cry foul on others, and then conveniently forget what you may have done wrong in the past. It has a way of coming back to bite you on the ass.

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