Lando 
Posted on 04/02/2005 3:17:28 PM PST by Lando Lincoln
The papacy is not, in theory, a man-made office at all. Its holder is chosen for life, by God himself, to hold the keys of Peter and to be the vicar of Christ on earth. This is yet another of the self-imposed tortures that faith inflicts upon itself. It means that you have to believe that the pope before last, who held on to the job for a matter of weeks before dying (or, according to some, before being murdered) was either unchosen by God in some fit of celestial pique, or left unprotected by heaven against his assassins. And it means that you have to believe that the public agony and humiliation endured by the pontiff was also part of some divine design. In the case of a presidency, or even a monarchy, provision can be made for abdication and succession when physical and mental deliquescence occur. But there could obviously not have been any graceful retirement in the case of John Paul II. The next vicar of Christ could hardly be expected to perform his sacred duties knowing that there was a still-living vicar of Christ, however decrepit, on the scene. Thus, and as with the Schiavo case, every last morsel of misery has been compulsorily extracted from the business of death. For the people who credit the idea, apparently, heaven can wait. Odd.
I leave it to the faith-based to wrestle with all this. Or rather, I would be happy to do so if they would stay out of my life. But there is one detail that sticks with me. A few years ago, it seemed quite probable that Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston would have to face trial for his appalling collusion in the child-rape racket that his diocese had been running. The man had knowingly reassigned dangerous and sadistic criminals to positions where they would be able to exploit the defenseless. He had withheld evidence and made himself an accomplice, before and after the fact, in the one offense that people of all faiths and of none have most united in condemning. (Since I have more than once criticized Maureen Dowd in this space, I should say now that I think she put it best of all. A church that has allowed no latitude in its teachings on masturbation, premarital sex, birth control, and divorce suddenly asks for understanding and "wiggle room" for the most revolting crime on the books.)
Anyway, Cardinal Law isn't going to face a court, now. He has fled the jurisdiction and lives in Rome, where a sinecure at the Vatican has been found for him. (Actually not that much of a sinecure: As archpriest of the Rome Basilica of St. Mary Major, he also sits on two boards supervising priestly discipline—yes!—and the appointment of diocesan bishops.) Even before this, he visited Rome on at least one occasion to discuss whether or not the church should obey American law. And it has been conclusively established that the Vatican itself—including his holiness—was a part of the coverup and obstruction of justice that allowed the child-rape scandal to continue for so long.
Yet everybody continues to pretend that this is no problem. We have all—haven't we?—outgrown the anti-Catholic paranoia that used to manifest itself in the Know-Nothing Party. We all agree—don't we?—that the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 was a landmark event for tolerance and inclusiveness and all that. Only a bigot would suggest that the church puts its believers into a quandary of dual loyalty.
Actually, the Kennedy brothers were part of a Catholic cabal which imposed another Catholic cabal on the luckless people of South Vietnam. It's impossible to read the history of that calamity without noticing the filiation between the detested Diem dynasty in Saigon and the Kennedys, Cardinal Spellman, and various Catholic Cold-War propagandists from Luce to Buckley. However, there's no proof that the Vatican ordered this, and the Kennedys did repent by having Diem murdered, so perhaps we can let that one slide.
But we cannot possibly let the case of Cardinal Law slide. And here the remedy is in the hands of American Catholics. They have had the guts to defy the papacy, in essence, when it comes to birth control. If they don't want to be thought compromised, they can protest at the sheltering of this vile man by the Holy See. But when did you last read of a protest like that? Will any obituary in this week of piety even allude to the situation? Of course not.
A few weeks ago, when the Supreme Court ruled against the execution of minors and specified the need to conform to international consensus on this, the Christian Right was outraged at the idea of foreign governments influencing American courts. But Terri Schiavo's parents were in court only moments afterward, instructing their lawyer to ask a judge to consider the church's teaching on purgatory and hell, and the state of the late Ms. Schiavo's soul. The Vatican is actually a foreign government, recognized as such by an exchange of ambassadors. Are we expected to be complacent when its clerical supporters try to short-circuit the U.S. Constitution with pleas of this kind?
"How many divisions," Stalin is supposed to have inquired contemptuously, "has the pope?" This stupid remark is invariably quoted against him. He failed to see that the pope can indeed mobilize legions. No obituary about John Paul II, for example, will omit to mention that he exerted enormous force to change the politics of Poland. Well, good for him, I would say. (He behaved much better on that occasion than he did when welcoming Tariq Aziz, one of Saddam Hussein's most blood-spattered henchmen, to an audience at the Vatican and then for a private visit to Assisi.) But let nobody confuse the undermining of a Stalinist bureaucracy in a majority Catholic nation with the insidious attempt to thwart or bend the law in a secular democracy. And let nobody say that this is no problem.
Lando
Lando
Christopher Hitchens huh? Well, this will be easy to dismiss out-of-hand.
I would like to see Cardinal Law indicted to the US for his complicity in child rape. I don't care if he is a vicar of Christ on earth. He needs to pay.
Franz Kafka wrote a short story about the philosophical musings of a dog, (a sentient dog, of course; a purely imaginary creature) who tried to understand the workings of the world he inhabited through the limited intellectual abilities of a canine. It reminds me of nothing so much as these feeble attempts by Hitchens to impeach God on the basis of the failings of human dogma. Hitchens is really a very small-minded person--big on knowledge; short on insight.
Hitchens makes a lot of sense on some things, but unfortunately is utterly poisoned against religion, and full of venemous hatred for it. So he is pretty much the last person I would listen to on the subject.
The first two paragraphs are nonsense, but unless I'm missing some information Hitchens makes a reasonable point with regard to Cardinal Law. If anyone can tell me why Law has been unjustly criticizes, I'm open to changing my mind.
Hitchens though charmingly witty and verbose at the same time...(that's a tactful way to say he is an intellectual masturbator)...is against anything religious.
The Pope and the Catholic Church is just a convenient target for him.
Poor Christopher. He just doesn't get it.
Regarding Tariq Aziz, I can see that episode coming from a desire to be a peacemaker. I side with the President rather than the Vatican on this one, but if the Pope errs, it will be on the side of trying to avoid war.
Sullivan is not at his best in discussing religion; he really doesn't understand it.
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe it's accurate to say that the Pope is chosen by God. The first Pope, Peter, was chosen by Jesus. After that, Peter's successors have been chosen variously by groups of bishops and later, cardinals. These electors pray for the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit and divine providence assure that no pope will promulgate heresy ex cathedra. But beyond that, there are good popes and bad popes. Occasionally the cardinals will choose a bad pope, and the Church suffers for a while.
God with His providence watches over the Church and assures us that it will endure to the end of time, and that the "gates of hell shall not prevail against it." But popes have often been bad, foolish, or otherwise less than perfect. This is generally God's way: not to micromanage human events, but to let people choose, and to guide them with a divine providence that leaves us a good deal of free choice.
It's sheer speculation, but one theory about John Paul I is that he died quickly because otherwise he would have done something that a pope shouldn't do. For whatever reason, God allowed him to be elected and then called him to back to Himself early. That also served to prepare the way to elect JP II, who certainly seems to have fulfilled a providential purpose.
Is Hitchen an atheist?
Hitchens' comments on Cardinal Law were quite accurate. JPIII will make a good start of it if the first thing he does is to send Bernie back here to face justice.
It's the LSD from the 60's speaking here. In one ear, out the other.
I saw god on LSD, I saw the ground breath, I am god, I saw miracles .....
I doubt it. He probably just hates God, much as a poor kid might hate Santa Claus.
I think you meant to say "Hitchens" not "Sullivan".
I think that Hitchens is anti-Catholic in much of his thinking but he is dead-on when it comes to indicting Bernie. The man is a criminal in every sense of the word and the Catholic Church is liable for protecting him. This is why we left the church. They put the institution above the lives of the children they hepled assault. I don't understand how good Catholics tolerate men who would cover-up such atrocities. All Christians believe in Jesus as our Savior and different churches are merely man-made institutions. You attend those churches because you believe in their hierarchy, not in the belief of our Lord. Why would you continue to follow men like these? Why not find a denomination that values the lives of their followers more than there own power?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.