The modern resurrection of the Inquisition

To continue from the previous page - yes it would...

So fast foreward now to the 1940s. In the small German town of Traunstein, a young woman named Elizabeth Lohner refused to join in the Nazi programs then being forced upon the German people. Instead, she chose to be a conscientious objector to the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi state. For her courage, her honour, and her morality, she was arrested and sent to the Dashau concentration camp. But many others took courage from her stand against oppression. For example, a neighbour of Frau Lohner hid the resistance fighter Hans Braxenthaler from Hitler’s psychopathic torture squads, the SS. Others in Traunstein and in other towns throughout Germany similarly refused to cooperate with the Nazis and the evil they embodied. Some ended up like Frau Lohner. But most survived, battling the Nazis by aiding resistance fighters, helping those persecuted with food and money, helping the allies against the regime, and whatever else they could do. The bravery of Ms. Lohner and so many others in Germany helped bring down the Nazi state. They should never be forgotten. They truly exemplified the love and compassion for others which Jesus taught.

But Frau Lohner’s neighbour Joseph Ratzinger chose not to fight against the Nazis. For as he said years later - there was no way to resist. That’s okay and understandable - not everyone can or should directly stand up to evil. In terrible times each person must do what they feel is best, as suited to their predelictions and opportunities. However it is not okay to claim as Herr Ratzinger later did, that there was no way to resist the Nazi evil. For in addition to being historically inaccurate, some might feel that such as statement casts a slur upon Herr Ratzinger’s brave neighbours and others like them throughout German who not only resisted the Nazis, but saved the lives of many by their courage... At any rate Herr Ratzinger joined the Hitler Youth movement, and later found gainful employment in Hitler’s anti-aircraft factories outside Munich. Intestingly this factory was one of several run primarily by slave labour overseen by those in Nazi employ. Many of the slaves were brought in from the Dachau concentration camp to toil until they died. (Herr Ratzinger was actually in the Luftwaffe as part of an AA crew. Although in theory members of the Luftwaffe, Wermacht and Kreigsmarine were later absolved by the allies, as was membership in Hitler Youth. However the statement put forth by Church apologists that Herr Ratzinger is also thereby absolved, besides being questionable, does not effect the current argument.)

Time passed, and Herr Ratzinger joined the Catholic priesthood. As an up an comer he was viewed as a by-the-book conservative and an able career politician. (one can imagine Irenaus being similarly viewed almost two millennia earlier). He did well. By 1984 (Orwell did not write an instruction manual) he had become a Cardinal. In this role his vigorous pursuit of free thinkers within the church particularly those involved with liberation theology, has been alleged to have turned back the clock on the progress of Vatican II by hundreds of years. His work is further alleged to have completely silenced liberation theology (a theology wishing to return to the inner teachings of Jesus). He was also behind the Church’s outlawing of euthanasia for terminal illnesses when requested by the dying. And behind the push to refuse the priesthood to women. And gays. His reasoning on these issues was in the opinion of many, indicative of his personal wish to return the Church to medieval times where conservative dogma was paramount and freedom of thought persecuted.

Eventually Herr Ratzinger became head of the Inquisition, or as it has been known in more recent times - the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In this role Herr Ratzinger allegedly worked diligently against post conciliar renewal thereby allegedly further attempting to undo Vatican II in favour of hard line authoritarianism and dogma. As head of the Inquisition his alleged attacks on liberal theologies and indeed upon most liberal forces for change within the church served as the much respected Jesuit Juan Luis Segundo said, to silence all forms of progressive and free discussion within the Church. Some have even alleged that anything antithetical to Herr Ratzinger’s personal ultra-conservative opinions was not tolerated and ruthlessly (that is, without Ruth’s participation) rooted out. Perhaps he and Irenaus were cut form similar cloth? At any rate Herr Ratzinger even went so far as to invite a well-known and outspoken Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson and friends back into the Church after previous Popes had banned them. (When people complained, Herr Ratzinger said he had not known the alleged denier’s beliefs... an amazing statement since Williamson’s opinions had been widely known, recorded and presented on television interviews, and promulgated by his followers in the Church for decades). Herr Ratzinger is also said to have been the primary force behind non-release of the many ancient historical documents in the Vatican library, the suppression of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls from publication (under the questionable rubric of "translation and technical difficulties"), and the refusal to recognize the hauntingly lovely Dead Sea Scroll the "Gospel of Thomas" the original words of Jesus.

Herr Ratzinger was also a champion of the organization known as Opus Dei. In 1982 this organization was made a personal prelature of the Vatican. That is, they were answerable directly to and only to, the Pope. This placed them beyond the authority of the Bishops and Cardinals - beyond the authority of the body of the Church, and certainly out of view of parishioners. This was the first time that the Church had created an entity answerable only to the Pope since the medieval Inquisition. And like the Inquisition, Opus Dei allegedly holds vast fiscal resources - at least $3,000,000,000 USD to use in any manner the organization wishes. Almost the first act of Herr Ratzinger in ascending to the office of Pope was to protect Opus Dei from the many, many voices both within and without the Church raised against it. He also set up the Foundation for Inter-religious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue, also under his (not the Church’s) direct control. As with Opus Dei, allegations against this organization are, if true, rather damning of Herr Ratzinger’s motives. For example, two of its leading members (the only two non-clerical board members of this Foundation) have been alleged to back violent political groups in several countries which have been alleged to have committed war crimes - you may wish to do some research on this for yourself. The Foundation has been alleged to have been involved in indoctrination practices with young, poor children in a manner allegedly similar to the indoctrination of the Hitler Youth movement to which Herr Ratzinger once belonged.

And speaking of obscenity... the Vatican Bank which is under Herr Ratzinger’s office, is not included in the Church’s financial statements. There is in fact, no public audit trail. No taxes either. How much of the Church’s billions of dollars in yearly tithes and investments really go to help the needy? No one but Herr Ratzinger and a few priviledged senior Church beaurocrats know. This is perhaps a tad surprising, as if the money really went for good causes, this would normally be something shouted from the rooftops.

When there is no audit trail, the potential for corruption magnifies. There are quite a few examples which lead one to question where the money is really going. One quick example: The case of Cardinal Sodano whom the Vatican claimed was a descendent of Jesus’ apostles. It has been alleged that a scheme under his alleged direction which routed a large amount of money would in most countries, have allegedly sent Sodano to prison. But Herr Ratzinger did nothing, other than tacidly support this and other (many other) examples of alleged corruption under his watch.

Bishops, Cardinals... they manage their own dioceses - almost none allow or have ever allowed full and independent audits. Considering that Herr Ratzinger’s Church is one of the largest businesses in the world with billions of contributors and billions in income, this is astonishing. If you are interest in the matter, you may enjoy reading through Jason Berry’s well known research, into Church alleged corruption, and then move on to read other research in the area. I very much doubt that anyone understanding the financial dealings of this Church would ever again donate a penny toward it. On the contrary, there may be instead be sufficient data to indicate that Herr Ratzinger’s Church may be little more than a rather corrupt business rather far removed from the real teachings of Jesus.

At any rate, I recently the pleasure of listening to several of Herr Ratzinger speeches. In two of these he apologized for the activities Catholic priests in the Church and their surprisingly numerous well documented acts of paedophilia. Unfortunately he failed to offer aid to the victims, compensatory monies from the Vatican’s billions, promises of legal punishment for the priestly perpetrators, promises to pay the many court cost for those who had attempted legal action against the Church for these activities, or even offer workable rules such as third-party independent (of the Church) oversight to prevent such horrors happening again. Herr Ratzinger failed to mention however, that it was he who signed the leaked letter enforcing Pope John XXIII’s instruction that acts of peadophilia by priests were to be treated

Nor did this man mention that his order to do this and not notify the police first or at all, is completely illegal in most of the world. Because of course, priests are special. Perhaps so special that they should be allowed to commit crimes or at least ethical aeration without accountability. Herr Ratzinger also pushed very hard for the beatification of Pope John Paul II, a man who appeared to have myopia concerning the endemic abuse by his priests and failure utterly to help those abused. Herr Ratzinger’s rush to make this man a “saint” certainly seemed a rush to reinvent history, and to reward failure, negligance, and perhaps willfull disregard for the legions of children harmed by his church’s abuse.

Herr Ratzinger also saw no need to censure Daniel Avila, Policy Advisor for Marriage and Family of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for his statement that “the scientific evidence of how same-sex attraction most likely may be created provides a credible basis for a spiritual explanation that indicts the Devil”. That is to say, there are some groups of people not created by his version of God, but rather by his version of a Devil. The wonderfully twisted theology whereby groups of people can be freely oppressed because they are deemed not truely human is the antithesis of compassion. And perhaps, if I may say so, the logic of genocide. Yet Herr Ratzinger, and indeed the council of Bishops, to date have done nothing to deny or distance themselves from this and similar statements from their advisor.

Instead Herr Ratzinger issued statements insisting that ordaining women deserved the same eternal damnation as paedophiles merited. Perhaps Herr Ratzinger wished to enforce yet again the millennia long misogyny perpetrated by his religion? Sigh... sometimes the mask slips and the true face beneith is exposed.

At any rate Herr Ratzinger went on to apologize to the Native Americans who as children had been taken by force to Catholic Residential Schools and like so many others around the world, preyed upon by some of the Church’s well-and purposefully-protected paedophiles in vestments. But apologies are cheap are they not? Without concrete and lasting action, they are also largely meaningless - perhaps little more than political gestures. In listening to Herr Ratzinger’s words my personal feeling was that they were largely contentless and formulaic, exactly as with so many other career politicians. Ex Cathedra declarations from such a person are perhaps examples of what Bourdieu, Foucault, Eckhart von Hochheim, or even perhaps Jaspers warned against? (Please also see my page on bibliocaust.)

It seems to me that the beauty and joy of the words attributed to Jesus - peace, love, poverty, and compassion - are difficult to understand or live for those who aspire to sit at the pinnacle of a massive financial and political institution said to be working in His name, but the very idea of which He so clearly and vehemently eschewed.

Update ten years after writing the foregoing:

Years ago the Irish singer Sinead O’Connor tore up a picture of the Pope on live television, in protest against alleged massive paedophilia allegedly perpetrated by the Church. She was castigated from all sides, not the least from Church leaders.

But many years have passed since then. During those years more people have come to be aware of the well documented, centuries long, paedophilia, war crimes, and crimes against humanity (viz. Pope Urban’s "people’s crusade") allegedly perpetrated by the Church, its prelates, and its leaders. To a lesser extent there has also been increased awareness, at least amongst scholars, of the Church’s alleged mass conspiracy to break laws in regarding the legal requirements to report child abuse. Even the Church’s child protection official appointed by Herr Ratzinger has been caught uploading pictures of child pornography and child abuse to websites. It has been alleged that there is very good and readily available evidence that the Herr Ratzinger personally, and the Church generally, should be and could be charged with obstructing justice or for “harbouring paedophile priests”. This is a crime under UK and international law punishable by jail time for individuals and extremely heavy fines and constraints for organizations. The International Criminal Court has been asked to prosecute Herr Ratzinger and other very senior Vatican officials for their alleged direct and knowing responsibility for crimes against humanity such as rape, sexual violence, and torture committed around the world. (Whether or not the ICC will act is another issue, and largely based upon political rather than factual consideration.) The Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, has called inaction by Herr Ratzinger and his Church on these issues an "absolutely disgraceful" failure.

Herr Ratzinger in addition to his control of the Church, is secular head of a European state. As such he has allegedly resisted a plethora of major human rights treaties, has allegedly refused as head of state to sign human rights agreements, has allegedly signed concordats with a number of states which have resulted in decreasing the human rights of those states’ citizens. Further, he has allegedly knowingly allegedly promoted the spread of AIDS (Herr Ratzinger has said that condoms do not prevent AIDS, but rather worsen it - in direct contradiction of scientific findings and indeed, to common sense). Perhaps this later is related to his alleged participation in the well known attempts to cover-up of his organization’s large scale paedophilia (including allegedly approving the movement of priests who perpetrated these crimes to venues where they could not be prosecuted). And even to allegedly attempt to cover up the decades long, 23-country widespread alleged rape of nuns by priests (as well documented in the National Catholic Reporter, Mother Superior Marie McDonal’s research, Sister Maura O’Donohue’s findings, and many others.) Under Herr Ratzinger’s leadership, these reports of alleged widespread rape by priests (throughout the world) were, as with decades of reports of paedophile, ignored and/or downplayed. For example Herr Ratzinger’s spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls allegedly claimed only a small “restricted geographical area” was involved, which of course, was not the case at all as he and his boss Herr Ratzinger must have known.

Herr Ratzinger’s rules and edicts on this and on many other matters certainly had the appearance of mimicking some of the worst of follies of the middle-ages - from obvious and systemic alleged misogyny to the alleged persecution of those espousing liberation theology and other intellectual freedoms. He allegedly seemed only to respond with politically correct statements when leaked documents and/or uproar amongst the flock indicated it was politically wise to do so.

In this it should be clear that Church fathers (women of course, are not allowed to lead the Church, due to their superior intelligence) as far back as Iraneaus’ time encouraged the belief that clergy were above the authority of “man-made” law. These medieval principles maintain that ecclesiastical rules are "God-given" and hence irrevocable. The result of almost two thousand years of this propaganda has been a massive sense of entitlement and intellectual inbreeding in the upper echelons of the Church. As with the many similarly large corporations, those at the pinnacle consider themselves and their minions beyond the reach of law. Or for that matter, the broader society’s ethical standards.

It must be understood however, that this sense of entitlement appears to go far beyond the Church’s alleged centuries long history of paedophilia, alleged law breaking, alleged support of war crimes, and alleged cover-up. Remember that the Church now headed by Herr Ratzinger, is the longest running and wealthiest financial corporation in history. And so when Herr Ratzinger during a Christmas mass, dressed in a white crown studded with gold, carrying a golden septre topped with rare rubies, and surrounded by trappings of wealth and power urged the laity to “strip away our fixation on what is material, on what can be measured and grasped”, the utter hypocracy of the statement was not lost on observers. His Church is alleged to control trillions of dollars. But the bulk of the Church’s use of this money is not open to public scrutiny. The bankers priests running this huge corporations under the direction of Herr Ratzinger have in fact allegedly refused all requests to independently audit their activities. There is information however to show that some of this money has gone to fund Opus Dei, Herr Ratzinger’s personal Foundation discussed supra, and other similar allegedly suspect institutions. But there is no publicly available audit of the remainder - not merely the gigantic financial trove, but of the actual use to which it is put.

Again, it is truly tragic that the beauty of Jesus’ teachings have been denigrated into the edifice and people that now claim to speak in His name.

Read on...