Hitler's Pope

[calbert at pop.tiac.net]

T. Flaherty:

> 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?

I would only counter that few if any of the other faiths operate in 
the political arena like the RCC. It would be fair to say that it is 
a secular power player par excellence.

> These great world religions all have
> bloody hands and yet most people are not disheartened. 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.

Methinks Mr. Morris's statement was a bit broad, and may have 
referred to the need for a parsing intermediary twixt man and G*d, 
and not that of religion.

> 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.

Again, take a look at the history of the Banco Ambrosiano scandal, 
itself a component of a greater campaign linked to the notorious P2 
reactionaries. When an institution behaves in a manner 
indistinguishable from that of a secular power, it is indeed fair to 
compare them. 

But I emphasize again, a whack at the institution need not, nor 
should it be a shot at the faith itself. Gotta be something to it, m' 
boys Evelyn Waugh ( though by most acounts a nasty curmodgeon), GK 
Chesterton, and Paul Mackin can't be that confused.

love,
cfa