Re: [A-List] The Roman Catholic Church and Totalitarian Regimes

[Jim Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 19 May 2005 17:24:46 -0400 "Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
writes:
> In his address on Thursday night, Benedict said all of humanity was
> seriously threatened each time a totalitarian regime trampled on an
> individual.
>
> What is the Roman Catholic Church if not a totalitarian regime? Is
> that
> Benedict's idea of a liberal institution?  What kind of invidual
> freedom
> do Cathloics enjoy from Church dogmas?  Besides,what does that have
> to
> do with Nazi persecution of Jews? The Nazi persecuted Jews as a
> group,
> not as individuals.

Philosopher, Sidney Hook, in his book *Reason, Social
Myth, and Democracy* called the Catholic Church,
"the oldest and greatest totalitarian movement in history."
Of course one might object, that Hook (who wrote
that back in the 1940s) was describing the
pre-Vatican II Church, but this pope, like his
immediate predecessor, seems very intent
on returning the Church back to the sort of totatalitarian
regime that it had been under, say, Pius XII.

And speaking of Pius XII, he never excommunicated
any of the Nazis for being Nazis, but after WW II,
did excommunicate those Catholics who were
supportive of Communists, as many Catholics
were in Italy, for instance at that time.


>
> Henry C.K. Liu