The Pope moved to the right

I don't like the homos

To call the new pope a Nazi demeans the most courageous act in the man's life, running from a Luftwaffe AA battery in a fit of common sense. The Nazis were big on roadside executions and unlike some of the Hitler Youth, he wasn't going to die for Hitler. There were plenty of people willing to ensure that you did. So he deserves ample credit for refusing to fight and to surrender to the Americans instead.

With that said, Pope Benedict XVI is probably the second worst possible choice for a Church which has some real issues. Only the head of Opus Dei could have been worse. Like child rape, gay priests, a loss of American financial support. Hell, the BBC reported that even the Germans can't stand the guy.

Nazi is the cheap word, he was a kid press ganged into the war and ran when he got a chance. The right phrase is Cold War reactionary. His opposition to change allowed John Paul II to maintain his conservative doctrine, yet be popular.

It was amusingly ironic to see all these young people cheering a pope many of them will disagree with. Benedict XVI has a past where bashing gays is part of his doctrine.

6. Providing a basic plan for understanding this entire discussion of homosexuality is the theology of creation we find in Genesis. God, in his infinite wisdom and love, brings into existence all of reality as a reflection of his goodness. He fashions mankind, male and female, in his own image and likeness. Human beings, therefore, are nothing less than the work of God himself; and in the complementarity of the sexes, they are called to reflect the inner unity of the Creator. They do this in a striking way in their cooperation with him in the transmission of life by a mutual donation of the self to the other.

In Genesis 3, we find that this truth about persons being an image of God has been obscured by original sin. There inevitably follows a loss of awareness of the covenantal character of the union these persons had with God and with each other. The human body retains its "spousal significance" but this is now clouded by sin. Thus, in Genesis 19:1-11, the deterioration due to sin continues in the story of the men of Sodom. There can be no doubt of the moral judgement made there against homosexual relations. In Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, in the course of describing the conditions necessary for belonging to the Chosen People, the author excludes from the People of God those who behave in a homosexual fashion.

Against the background of this exposition of theocratic law, an eschatological perspective is developed by St. Paul when, in I Cor 6:9, he proposes the same doctrine and lists those who behave in a homosexual fashion among those who shall not enter the Kingdom of God.

In Romans 1:18-32, still building on the moral traditions of his forebears, but in the new context of the confrontation between Christianity and the pagan society of his day, Paul uses homosexual behaviour as an example of the blindness which has overcome humankind. Instead of the original harmony between Creator and creatures, the acute distortion of idolatry has led to all kinds of moral excess. Paul is at a loss to find a clearer example of this disharmony than homosexual relations. Finally, 1 Tim. 1, in full continuity with the Biblical position, singles out those who spread wrong doctrine and in v. 10 explicitly names as sinners those who engage in homosexual acts.

The problem is that his clergy is filled with said sodomites. He's wedded to a past which does not exist any longer. Most Catholic parents would be scared shitless if their kids wanted to be priests, because most normal men want families. Those who seek the priesthood are well, flawed in ways. Not all of them, but enough where you have to wonder about their true motivations. The clergy in the West is shrinking and yet, Benedict XVI has been wedded to same destructive policies. The conflicts which John Paul II smoothed over with his immense charm will have a much rougher cast to it under the new pope.

The guy is even detested in Germany, where a poll showed that 36 percent of Germans dislike him. So when he starts prattling on about the gays and the priesthood and divorce, expect to see the west stop giving money.

If you wanted a pope to make all the current problems worse, he's the man. John Paul II coated his reactionary policies with oodles of charm, which made them easy to ignore, like the rantings of grandpa about shooting Germans at Cassino. But Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has no such charm. Many of the people smiling today will ramp up their calls for fundamental change in the church tomorrow.

posted by Steve @ 1:22:00 AM