The Legacy of Pope John Paul II
Let’s review the accomplishments of Pope John Paul II:
–Women still cannot become priests.
–Male priests still cannot marry.
–Despite over a billion dollars and rivers of tears, boy-rape is still rampant in the U.S. Catholic Church.
–Catholic Africa is still summed up in two words: poverty and AIDS.
–Gays went from being “sufferers of a disorder” to “a new ideology of evil.”
Can sainthood be far behind?
And speaking of dead Popes:
On August 28 [1978], the beginning of his papal revolution was announced. It took the form of a Vatican statement that there was to be no coronation, that the new pope [John Paul I] refused to be crowned. There would be no sedia gestatoria, the chair used to carry the pope, no tiara encrusted with emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds. No ostrich feathers, no six-hour ceremony…. Luciani, who never once used the royal “we,” was determined that the royal papacy with its appurtenances of worldly grandeur should be replaced by a Church that resembled the concepts of its founder. The “coronation” became a simple Mass. The spectacle of a pontiff carried in a chair…was supplanted by the sight of a supreme pastor quietly walking up the steps of the altar. With that gesture Luciani abolished a thousand years of history.
–David Yallop, “In God’s Name: The Murder of Pope John Paul I“
That was the man Catholics were promised — was the man they actually got really so awesome by comparison?
A good review/summary of Yallop’s book, which I read too long ago to remember, available here.
Yup, great bunch of guys, those Vatican elites. I have no doubt that they’ll continue to make the Papacy in their own image.
How sad.
More thoughts at Towleroad and ModFab.
Related Posts:
Naked Bigotry Update: Pope Urges Anglicans to Reject Gays
Pope: Nazism “Collapsed” (No Mention of Allies)
Churches Do Don’t Do Don’t Support Gay Marriage
Scientology and (Catholics and) Gays
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Christopher Hitchen's book The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice is an excellent analysis, not so much of the Pope, but of the Catholic church's strange understanding of suffering. (Note that I continually receive errors if I try to insert the link to Amazon for this book. Something about URLs can't exceed 60 characters. So go to Amazon yourself and look it up.)
Hitchens argues, quite convincingly, in my opinion, that Mother Teresa ministered to the poor and destitute, but did not provide them adequate palliative care, despite raising millions from wealthy westerners. She allegedly argued that to receive modern palliative care is "prideful" and that the poor to whom she ministered should wear their suffering as an honor.
An odd morality, to say the least.
That sounds much like the Pope's last message — that suffering for the sake of suffering is a noble thing.
Sorry, but I find such thinking utterly monstrous.
Kip we (obviously) don't see the late pope in the same way. I haven't read everything you have written about him, so I don't know if this was an evolution since you began blogging or is something that was established long before. I am not interested in arguing, but I do appreciate dialogue with earnest minds. Many Catholics like myself do hope for some changes, although some are far more likely than others. Today at Mass the priest made a prediction about the next pope. "Liberal? Conservative? I'll guarantee you: he'll be Catholic."