Re: [Marxism] Rabbi Lerner: "Ratzinger is Bad News for the World and for Jews"

["Carlos A. Rivera" <cerejota@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

> This would make him the most popular pope in the history of the church
> among official Jewry, and it would deepen the isolation of the great
> majority of Jewry from the oppressed and exploited in the world and the
> entanglement of their leading layers with the oppressors and exploiters.

I agree with this point completely.

Yet, I view "official Jewry" as latter-day fascists, so this agreement
doesn't translate into a view on Ratzinger not being a fascist.

Now, I was a Catholic. I actually converted to Catholism when I was 9 years
old from my atheist background. I almost became a seminarian and was an
altar boy (no, no salacious details there). My involvement with the Church
lasted until I was 17 years old, when I rediscovered atheism. I now consider
myself an agnostic, after reading the debate between Umberto Eco and the the
Bishop of Milan.

Nevertheless, I am an agnostic-Catholic, much like there are agnostic-Jews,
and hence I keep abreast of the Church politics in levels not safe for a
marxists to take.

One of this things is keeping abreast of the Opus Dei and the Francoists
establishment. Now, the Polish Pope was not a fascist. He was actually an
anti-fascist, with the credentials to prove it. Yet he managed the church in
a coalition between the Opus Dei/Fascists and the anti-C Social-Christians
(those people are to Liberation Theology what Social-Democracy is to
Communism).

You could see this thread in the Curia, in the Bishopry namings and even in
the Beatifications and Sainthoods (record numbers BTW).

He was a coalition Pope, a Popular Front pope, if you will.

Now, Ratzinger, he is is a fascist. And not because he served in the Hitler
Youth. I agree that is red herring. If every German child who was in the
Hitler Youth is to be branded a fascist today, we might as well describe the
entire German population over 70 (or so) years old as fascist.

No, Ratzinger is a fascist because his current political views are fascist
views. He is *not* a Nazi. I doubt he has any racial-supremacist fantasies.

But he is a Phalangist. His "corporatism" is not of the Social-Christian
brand, but of the Francoist brand, which I call fascism.

The only way you can deny Ratzinger is a fascist is if you deny Franco was a
Fascist. Now, some marxists do question this, and describe Franco in terms
other than fascist.  My guess by reading you is that you fall into the
Franco-was-not-fascist camp. I disagree, yet I do think it is a valid
position to hold.

But if you accept that Franco and his regime was fascist, then you must
describe Ratzinger as a fascist too, because he is the continuation of that
ideological current, and is a rabid, rabid, rabid, anti-communist. The jury
is still out on Cuba and Venezuela, but I bet ya a billion bucks the church
will get more actively anti-c in places were the Cs are strong but not in
power. Look for a Bull within the year describing this.

And the Church, by electing him, has decided to support this path. It came
as no surprise to me: the Chruch has been increasingly going the Opus Dei
way since the Soviet Union fell.

Even the choosing of the name Benedict XVI, instead of others, is
indicative. Benedict XV was not only the Pope that presided over WWI, but
also the one that implemented a new Code of Canon Law in 1917. This an
important part of why Benedict XVI chose the name, as the Church had never
before codified Canon.  This Canon has since been modified, the latest in
1983.

In other words, people who look at the outward implications of the name
chosen are probably barking up the wrong tree:

The implications are more relevant internally than externally.

In that sense, I do expect the Church to direct official State foreign
policy as it has until now. Yet, I expect that the political/ideological
process of the Chruch, which in spite of all, is rather loose, will
thighten. A new Code could be in the works, and this could very well be a
main reason for electing what amounts to an Attorney General to the
Presidency.

Benedict XV was also the first major reformer of the Church missionary
structures and started the reformation of the largely euro-centric
priesthood into a localized force. In essence he set the material conditions
for the Vatican II's adoption of vernaculars for the Mass. I am not
surprised if Ratzinger's election also has to do for paving the way for an
African Pope, because that the fastest growing and most conservative Church.

sks


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