Hitler's Pope

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

David Morris wrote:
> 
> >From: JBFRAME at aol.com
> [snip]
> >The idea that Pius XII be canonized should sicken the world.
> >
> 
> The FACT that there are so many who believe in such an office is also
> disheartening.
> 
> David Morris
> 


Why is this disheartening? That people believe in a pope or
a chief or a master or a teacher or a leader or guide or
holy one, or path walker or some human representative of an
ideal is something humans do and have been doing for as long
as humans have been walking on two legs. That the RCC has
more blood on its hands than a corporation should not
surprise anyone. The RCC has a very long history.  And does
it have more blood on its hands than England? This is a
better comparison, right? Or perhaps we should only compare
the great world religions. Are there damned spots on the
hands of Judaism? Chinese Philosophies? Japanese Religions,
American Religions? These great world religions all have
bloody hands and yet most people are not disheartened. In
fact the great world religions continue to govern the way in
which the majority of human beings interpret the world. Yes,
the way they see things, and understand, and live. This is a
fact that can not be simply attributed to ignorance or
tradition or power and so on.  These religions are not
resilient because they have money and power and bloody
history, but rather in spite of these evils and they
demonstrate their resiliency by adapting contemporary styles
of philosophy to their fundamental doctrines. We know more
about the RCC here in the west because we study western
history, but it seems we know little of the history of other
great world religions and I think comparing the RCC to a
corporation like Ig F or IBM doesn't make much sense and
when people do this sort of thing in the papers I know they
have a political axe to grind or they are ignorant of the
history of world religion and the history of religion, since
they always compare apples and oranges. 

TF