I would like to preface the following by noting that I was born into the bosom of the Catholic Church, raised by devout Catholics, taught by Christian Brothers. I served Masses, sang in the choir, and was altar boy of the year in my parish. I have experienced firsthand all the good that can flow from people whose faith has informed their lives. I also witnessed, however, the physical and sexual abuse that was often meted out by those who wear the "uniform" of the Church—particularly the brothers and priests—as well as the arrogance that animates the pronouncements coming out of Rome, and out of bishops and other officials who have done so much to advance causes that, despite being given cover by their collar, promote hatred and sow division among people. Although brewed a Catholic and imbued with many of its teachings, I have found it impossible to stay in the Church, since some of what look to be its core values are ones I absolutely reject, in particular its rejection of full membership for women, its homophobia, its misogyny, and its twisted and backward views on sexuality (not surprising, given the ludicrousness of celibate misogynists setting themselves up as experts on family life). Add to that list now its racist bigotry, thanks to Joseph Ratzinger, aka Benedict 16.
Ever since his predecessor J2P2 told Catholics that anti-Semitism was in fact a sin, Der Kurrent Pope has kept a special place in his heart for Jew haters and other ding-dongs who long to return to the bosom of Mother Church, and has now welcomed some of them back with open arms. Last year, when Ben16 relaxed rules to allow the return of the Latin Mass, one of the effects of this was to reinstate the Good Friday prayer that seeks the conversion of the Jews (who we all know "murdered" our Lord and Saviour on the Cross). This reinstatement is odd, given that the Church has, since Vatican II, rejected the notion of collective guilt for Jews for the crucifixion, but Ratzinger seems unbothered by this. Four bishops of a schismatic sect who rejected the Church in the wake of Vatican II reforms and who have referred to both Popes J2P2 (who excommunicated them) and Benedict16 as "heretical"—among them Richard Williamson, a very vocal Holocaust denier who also claims that the US staged the 9/11 attacks so they could go to war in Afghanistan—have been welcomed back into the Church, apparently without having so much as to recant any of their repulsive bigotry. Days after this, B16 promoted ultra-conservative Father Gerhard Maria Wagner to assistant bishop of Linz, in Austria. Father Wagner believes, among other things, that Harry Potter spreads Satanism, and that hurricane Katrina and the flood of New Orleans were divine retribution for the city's tolerance toward sex and gays. He was particularly pleased that in addition to brothels and clubs, the Katrina disaster hit five of the city's abortion clinics.
One can just imagine a boy's night out with the likes of "Bishop" Williamson, Father Wagner, and Hutton and Mel Gibson. Not to mention that Neo-Nazi waste of skin, Ernst Zundel, who found himself enthusiastically defended by Williamson years ago when the latter was in Canada.
Frances Kissling put it best in the New Republic, "It is not merely discouraging or problematic that Pope Benedict XVI is making nice with a Holocaust denier, or mending fences with a splinter group of ultraconservative anti-Semites, it is sick and evil."
What kind of church is it that (or equally, what kind of a spiritual leader is it who) will welcome back into their midst someone who bears false witness about one of the most horrific episodes in human history, who in so doing continues to perpetrate a hate crime? Those who might be tempted to find the answer to this in Joseph Ratzinger's being German should note that German Chancellor Angela Merkel tore a strip off him over this, and that many prominent German Catholics have raised a holy ruckus, so much so that only today the Vatican declared that Williamson would have to recant his Holocaust denial as a condition of his being brought back into the Church. The Vatican also stated that Ratzinger didn't know about Williamson's views before asking him back in. This latter shit-eating statement cannot but be a lie, yet another sin to be added to this catalogue of shame for the Church.
It will take a long time, and a new Pope at a minimum, before the stain of this will wash off the leadership of the Church. In the meantime, those clerics who preach hatred, and all those who enable them in the Church need to be told to go to hell.
