Joseph Ratzinger -career politician

• Christianity Part 1: Borrowed Myths
• Christianity Part 2: Church Censorship
  
• Christianity Part 3: Creating a Power Base
• Christianity Part 4: Career Politicians

“Shine on the Catholic Church
And the prisons that it owns,
Shine on all the Churches
that love less and less.”
Shine on lousy leadership
Licensed to kill
Shine on dying soldiers
In patriotic pain
Shine on mass destruction
In some God's name!”
-- Shine: by the poet Joni Mitchell

Part 4: The modern resurrection of the Inquisition

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.

Recently I had 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 2001 letter enforcing Pope John XXIII's instruction that acts of peadophilia by priests were to be treated "in the most secretive way... restrained by a perpetual silence... and everyone... is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office... under the penalty of excommunication". 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 civilized countries. Because of course, priests are special. He did however, insist that ordaining women deserved the same eternal damnation as paedopheliacs merited. Misogeny en masse. 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.

"Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect,
go and sell that thou hast,
and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven:
and come and follow me."

Back to Christianity Part 1...

Update 1: Many years have past since I wrote the foregoing. During those years more people have come to be aware of the well documented, centuries long, paedophilia and war crimes (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.

In this it should be clear that Church fathers (women of course, are not allowed 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 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.  It is alleged to control trillions of dollars. But the bulk of the Church's use of this money is not open to public scrutiny. Some of the money has gone to fund Opus Dei, Herr Ratzinger's personal Foundation discussed supra, and other similar allegedly suspect institutions. What of the bulk of the remainder, and what of the publicly available audit of not merely this financial trove, but 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.