[Marxism] A critique of the pope and some comments

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I find this from-the-inside criticism by a Catholic left-liberal more
incisive than most of those offered by mainstream leftists. The
discontent is higher in the Catholic "flock" is higher than it was even
when John Paul VI died.  What is missing is sufficient class struggle to
push the hierarchy back, the conditions prevailing during the papacies
of JohnXXIII and Paul VI. I have no doubt that Washington -- through
super-rich Catholics and Jews and their contributions -- has some say
over who becomes Pope, but I am not sure it is decisive.  The neocons'
preference will certainly be an Austrian prelate who favors the Zionist
siezure of Palestinian land as fulfillment of prophecy.

As for John Paul's unique role in Eastern Europe, I am sure his election
was influenced by the well-earned weakness of the regimes there.  The
fact that so many people greeted in Eastern Europe greeted his election
as a liberating event simply shows that the political preparation for
the disintegration of the workers' states was already largely completed.
The fight against the aspirations of the working-class masses in
Solidarity only helped give a final touch to the process. The Pops's
visit did not cause, but was part of the coup de grace.  This was just
his job.  Communists who complain that a pope did not defend communism
in its time of travail, but rather the opposite, seem beside the point
to me.

Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba was probably the most powerful
expression, though not a cause, of the defeat of the blockade.  And IF
he persuaded the Cubans to take a more tolerant, secular attitude toward
religious beliefs (they were always pretty good on this), then he
contributed something to putting Cuba farther off the course that led to
doom for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

I don't think any Pope is progressive, including the two I mentioned
earlier.  Their political character is determined basically by their
institution.  If some future John Paul gives a ten-hour, patient, non
polemical speech to the "flock" explaining why and how religion serves
the ruling class, that there is no God to save us, and that human beings
must struggle against the existing order to win their needs, THAT will
be a progressive Pope.  I don't expect to see it soon, and I take the
last pope and his successor pretty much in stride.
Fred Feldman



The Pope Who Revived the Office of the Inquisition
An American Catholic Relfects on Papacy of John Paul II
By JIM CONNOLLY

This week you will be inundated with honorific obituaries to Karol
Wojtila, Pope John Paul II. I am writing not to honor Wojtila; he will
(quite frankly) receive more honor in the next week than any individual
mortal deserves. I write as a witness to the damage this man did during
his 26 years as Roman pontiff to the causes of liberty and peace
throughout the world.

There will be few voices such as mine raised on the occasion of
Wojtila's death, but someone must speak the truth. Much of what I say
here will be new (perhaps even surprising) to non-Catholics. To
Catholics, I write to remind them of what each of them knows but seldom
acknowledges. Karol Wojtila forced the best minds out of the Catholic
Church, or at least to the extreme margins of the Church. Wojtila
sanctified the baroque reproductive/sexual bugaboos that infest the
Catholic Church while striving to ideologically lobotomize the Catholic
clergy and laity. Although he was a fine ambassador of good will to
Protestants, Jews, and Muslims, Wojtila degraded the richness of
Catholic faith and tradition into mindless displays of loyalty. An
archaic organization that had shown signs of serious promise as a
refreshed (and even potentially progressive) social force under Popes
John XXIII and Paul VI was methodically and ruthlessly drubbed into the
mold of ideological and cultural reaction. The record shows that Karol
Wojtila was a charming man and a master of international public
relations, but he was a political and cultural reactionary to his core

Remember that I and many others did not become Catholics by reason of
our voluntary decisions. Long centuries before my birth, complex systems
of custom and loyalty and political alliances led the Irish and Bavarian
peasants who made up the bulk of my ancestors to become cemented within
the Roman Catholic Church. As an infant, my family inducted me into the
Catholic Church by way of the rite of baptism. As a young child, I was
educated in Catholic schools. In my childhood, loyalty to family and
Church stood much higher than loyalty to nation. Even as I have defined
myself as an individual in a secular society, the ties of ancestry,
ethnicity, early experience and schooling leave me thoroughly "Catholic"
in many senses.

Largely because of the actions of Karol Wojtila, it is unlikely that my
grandchildren will be raised as Catholics. For many years I vowed that I
would not cede the Catholic Church to the vile reaction induced and
symbolized by Pope John Paul II. I strove for many years to be one of
those who kept alive the fine things within the rich Catholic religious
and cultural tradition, but in the last two years I have had to
acknowledge that this quest can no longer reasonably be pursued within
the current institution of the Roman Catholic Church. In death,
Wojtila's reaction is likely to entirely prevail, since he transformed
the Church itself by promoting only the most rigid and automoton-like of
clerics to positions of responsibility.

Ignore the press hype about kissing the ground while globetrotting and
recognizing Israel. Forget the ridiculous lie that John Paul II favored
"human rights." Ignore the canned media obituary coverage that strives
to show you that Wojtila (like Nixon, Reagan, Bob Hope, and (soon)
Margaret Thatcher) were "great" international figures. Here is part of
the damage wrought by this arch-reactionary and the regressive forces he
unleashed in the Catholic Church:

1. Among Wojtila's first actions as Pope was to attack freedom of
inquiry and freedom of speech in Catholic universities. Progressive
theology, feminist thought, and "liberation theology" were driven from
accepted Catholic discourse. Catholic universities in Europe and North
America have lost their best scholars in the humanities and have sunk
into being miserable intellectual ghettoes with respect to history,
philosophy, theology, and related fields.

2. Wojtila revived and strengthened the Office of the Inquisition under
the infamous Cardinal Ratziger. The "Holy Office" was near abolition
under the two previous pontiffs, but Wojtila wielded the Inquisition as
his special shock troops in a relentless campaign to silence all
varieties of opinion other than his own. Repression of thought at the
level of the diocese and parish became commonplace again after a blessed
reprieve in the 1960s and 1970s.

3. Pursuing his lifelong dedication to fanatic anti-communism, Wojtila
pressured the reluctant Christian Democrats of Italy, Germany, and
Holland to accede to the placement of US cruise missiles in Europe in
the early 1980's. As a result of this provocative action by the United
States, nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union came even closer
than during the Cunan Missile Crisis. The result might have been the
nuclear annihilation of the planet. No credit to Wojtila, the planet
survived. Wojtila's claims as an advocate of peace are false to their
core.

4. Wojtila has intervened repeatedly in the electoral politics of his
homeland, Poland, since the late 1980s to bring about government by
socially conservative politicians who pass papal muster on women's
rights and abortion and "anti-materialism" (opposition to the
introduction of consumerism). Despite some cultural and economic promise
in the late 1980s, Poland has become stultified with vast out-migration
of educated Poles and economic paralysis. When they are being honest,
migrating Poles will tell you that Wojtila and the power of the Polish
Catholic Church are destroying their homeland.

5. Wojtila badgered the progressive Latin American bishops and
archbishops (yes, there used to be several of them!) to abandon support
of cooperatives, peasant political initiatives, and community organizing
in his infamous campaign to eliminate "liberation theology." Only safe,
traditional, right-wing candidates were promoted into the Catholic
hierarchy. Wojtila denounced "liberation theology" and drove its
proponents in Nicaragua and many other places out of the Catholic
Church.

6. In the United States, Wojtila in 1980 forced Father Robert Drinan,
one of the nation's leading elected progressive politicians, to resign
from Congress (under penalty of being forced to leave the priesthood).
At the same time, Wojtila fostered the alliance of right-wing American
Catholic bishops with the "Christian right" on the issues of abortion,
women's rights, and homosexuality. In North America and beyond, a double
standard has been applied by Wojtila for Catholic clergy involvement in
political causes. Advocating for progressive causes has been forbidden
as impermissibly "political" while advocacy and alliances against
abortion, contraception, and women's rights has been approved as
necessary "witnessing" to Catholic values.

7. Wojtila has systematically purged what were previously culturally and
politically progressive religious orders such as the Jesuits and
Franciscans. These worldwide purges of the orders have been carried out
by appointees Wojtila has made as heads of the various orders. In some
cases, progressive leaders in the religious orders were forced to retire
early so that his handpicked reactionaries could take command.

8. Wojtila has refused to acknowledge what had been a central role of
women in the Catholic Church. He not only opposed the elevation of women
to ministry (despite powerful evidence that women performed such roles
in the early Christian Church), he refused to allow the many orders of
nuns to creatively adapt to modern conditions. As a result, the Catholic
sisterhoods are virtually defunct, and the clerical personnel of the
Catholic Church has been turned into an all-male private club.

9. Wojtila has forbidden the use of indigenous cultural forms in worship
services in non-Western countries. Gone are the marvelous masses and
hymns from Africa and Latin America that inspired Christian worship in
the 1960s and 1970s. In Western countries, he has insisted on
restricting the use of Catholic church buildings to specifically
religious purposes despite their great value as venues for concerts, art
exhibits, and community activities. Multiple uses of churches was a
tradition carried down from the Middle Ages. The great cathedrals of
Europe were designed on the assumption of multiple uses.

10. Despite painfully obvious need and institutional commitments made
during the Second Vatican Council, Wojtila refused to modernize working
conditions for the Catholic clergy. Catholic priests remain the most
underpaid and overworked of denominational Christian ministers. In
addition, the input of priests into promotion processes within the
clergy, which traditionally acted as a counterweight to hierarchical
oppression, has been reduced by Wojtila to a nullity.

11. Flying in the face of historical precedent and the most basic common
sense, Wojtila refused to consider issues of clerical celibacy and the
upgrading of the diaconate to the central functions of the ministry.
Clerical celibacy is (quite frankly) a custom originating in the early
middle ages for purposes of property consolidation, and it has always
been "honored more in the breach than the observance." Furthermore,
deacons performed sacramental functions until modern times. The
restriction of sacramental functions to a celibate priesthood was not
even an official ideal of the Catholic Church until the sixteenth
century. Wojtila's refusal to even permit discussion of issues
concerning clerical celibacy and full sacramental functions for the
diaconate has created a vast shortage of Catholic clergy and turned the
most energetic and talented Catholics away from ministry within their
own Church.

12. The ancient tradition of partial autonomy of the "nationes" within
the Catholic Church has been broken by Wojtila. Traditionally, the
national councils of Catholic bishops within each country had
considerable leeway in governing the local churches. Wojtila, unlike any
of his modern predecessors, regularly intervened and overturned
decisions by the national councils concerning details of religious
customs and personnel decisions.

13. Wojtila deepened and intensified the reproductive doctrinal fetishes
of his most reactionary predecessors. Official "Catholic" positions on
contraception and abortion are creations of deservedly obscure,
personally bizarre, and sexually twisted theologians resident in the
Roman theological colleges during the nineteenth century. They have no
basis whatsoever in the beliefs and practices of either the ancient or
medieval Church. Because of Wojtila's use of the Catholic Church's
influence in international organizations and its alliance with the
"Religious Right" in the USA, international birth control programs have
been starved and gutted over the last two decades. As a result, tens of
millions of African, Asian and Latin American infants and children have
lived and died in misery!

14. Despite Wojtila's external reputation as some sort of "liberal,"
Catholics know that Wojtila is the close ally of the extremist and
highly secretive Catholic movement known as Opus Dei. Wojtila has
welcomed and blessed the practices of Opus Dei, which is a kind of
"Church within the Church." He has promoted clergy who are affiliated
with Opus Dei to the highest of positions within the Church. Opus Dei
members congregate in secret in KKK-like costumes and engage in
practices which include wearing hairshirts and self-flagellation. They
maintain a network of secret monasteries and houses where young
Catholics (especially those from wealthy and prominent families) are
taken for intensive indoctrination sessions. Opus Dei members have been
reliably reported by deprogrammed former members to favor
re-ghettoization of Jews and international military crusades against
Islam. US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a key member of Opus
Dei in North America. The most likely successor to John Paul II is the
ultra reactionary Archbishop of Milan, Dionigi Tettamanzi (known in
Italy as the "Beast of Milan") who is reputedly one of the maximum
leaders of the secretive cult of Opus Dei.

15. Wojtila methodically purged the College of Cardinals of any creative
or free-thinking members, and almost all members of the current College
of Cardinals, which will now choose Wojtila's successor, are rightwing
clerical robots appointed by Wojtila himself. The Catholic Church is now
guaranteed to have a self-perpetuating reactionary leadership for the
indefinite future.

16. All initiatives for democratization of governance of the Catholic
Church which began in the 1960s and 1970s were stopped in their tracks
by Wojtila. American Catholics no longer talk about lay input into major
decisions of the Church. The many talented laymen and laywomen who run
the day-to-day operations of Catholic parishes and diocese are treated
with highhanded disrespect, and the most talented have left or are in
the process of leaving.

17. Wojtila cruelly abandoned the Catholics of Northern Ireland to a
fate of political oppression and denial of their basic human rights. The
Catholics of Northern Ireland are the only European Catholics still
undergoing systematic persecution for their religious beliefs. One might
have thought that Pope John Paul II would have championed the human
rights of Northern Irish Catholics. Instead, Wojtila never spoke out
against the horrendous oppression of his coreligionists in Northern
Ireland. His sole contribution to the discussion of Northern Ireland was
to condemn IRA violence (without any corresponding condemnation of
British Army or loyalist violence) and demand a cessation of IRA
activities, which would simply have left the Catholics in Northern
Ireland completely helpless to their oppressors.

18. Last but not least, Karol Wojtila proved his utter moral bankruptcy
in his horrendous mishandling of the pedophile scandals in the Catholic
Churches of the United States, Canada, Ireland, Britain, and several
other nations. Wojtila could never bring himself to a clear apology or
an acknowledgement of wrongdoing or institutional responsibility for the
Catholic Church's practices of abuse, intimidation, and rape of tens of
thousands of children and adolescents. Most reprehensibly, Wojtila
removed the independent power of the United States Catholic bishops to
discipline pedophile priests while attributing the horror and filth
within the American Catholic Church to some sort of American cultural
malady.

Visiting a synagogue and a mosque, issuing a few statements about Iraq
and Palestine, opposition to capital punishment as an isolated
issue--Sorry, but these and some other (mainly symbolic) "proofs" of
John Paul's "humanity" and his "apostolate of peace" ring very, very
hollow to this American Catholic who has had his tradition and his
Church wrenched from him by an Eastern European rightwing fanatic in
Pope's clothes.

Jim Connolly can be reached at: JConno2031@xxxxxxx





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