Christopher Hitchens describes the Pope as an 'elderly criminal'
Posted on 08/04/2010 10:48:12 AM PDT by NYer
Vanity Fair have sent me a preview of Christopher Hitchens’s very unpleasant piece about his cancer – unpleasant not just because Hitchens describes in detail the invasion of his body by a monstrous tumour, but also because it contains a despicable slur against the Pope. (And Henry Kissinger, but I don’t care about that.)
He writes: “Will I really not live long enough … to read – if not indeed write – the obituaries of elderly criminals like Henry Kissinger and Joseph Ratzinger?”
This should scarcely need saying, but Pope Benedict XVI is not a criminal: neither Hitchens nor anyone else has produced evidence that he covered up the crimes of paedophile priests. On the contrary, he sought to tighten up canonical procedures against sex abusers. There were plenty of cover-ups; it’s just that the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith didn’t organise them and, indeed, fought battles with some of those prelates who did.
So this is a nasty piece of character assassination, sadly typical of a brilliant journalist who, once he’s made up his mind about somebody, shuts out information that might force him to tone down the savagery of his rhetoric. And it’s not rendered any less nasty by the fact that “Hitch” is – by his own account – probably dying. But it does make the whole thing desperately sad.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
I’ve had wildly differing feelings about Hitchens. Couldn’t stand him in his Edward Said period, but now and then he’d aim his intellect at Clinton, admit he liked Thatcher, and a few other things. Sorry to see he’s being consumed with hate as he’s being consumed by cancer.
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OK, Mr. Hitchens is a putz. But, as a Catholic, I still need to pray for him.
I am sorry for his trouble.
Why should you even worry about the writings of a man who has been bitter and hateful all of his life, and has tried to disguise his state of mind in his very self-serving biography? Christopher Hitchens is obviously miserable. And God says Hitchens is a fool, anyway.
Well, you’re wrong Christopher. I hope it’s just the cancer talking. God bless you, and may you be healed in mind and body.
"Hitchens is dead" : God
I’m getting tired of the casual hyperbole that is used by sensationalist writers. Rather than think out their sentences and their implications they use a shorthand and hyperbole that is indefinite at best, typically misleading, and an outright lie at worst. “Elderly criminal” to Hitchens may mean something different than “elderly criminal” . . . and if pressed on it he’d throw out some explanation of what he meant rather than “elderly criminal.” Annoying, sloppy thinking and very mean spirited at this stage in his life. Hope the poor bastard opens up his mind before he is gone for good.
Amen
Hitchens is the perfect example that a person, ANY PERSON, is not either all bad or all good......HOWEVER, he does seem just a TAD anti-Catholic, hating Mother Teresa and Pope Benedict......two VERY GOOD PEOPLE.
Prayers up for him.
Seriously, if I were Hitch, and I believed this life were all there was, I’d leave off the hunt for Henry and Pope Benedict (and the quest to urinate on Mother Teresa’s grave, pardon the vulgarity), and spend more time with booze, coke and hookers.
Good point.While there's breath in his body he can still find Truth.
I like Hitch, but, man, he makes it hard sometimes.
Did he *really* say that????
Ten Bucks on a Death Bed conversion!
So, what exactly makes him a "brilliant" journalist ?
I also think the Lord God on high also agrees with Hitchens about Kissinger and Popery. Especially Popery that has enslaved so many through sexual abuse for the last seventy years at the hands of pedophile priests.
Lord God, I ask for a miracle in your name. I ask that Christopher Hitchens would see that You are the one who loves him and that You write his name in your lamb's book of life. Thank for for the gift of who Christopher Hitchens has been to us as a brilliant thinker and truth teller. Lord I also ask that all liars hypocrites and the rich men and ruling men of the earth whom commit abomination in Your sight would be exposed, discredited, and cut off from harming any more people. Thank you for hearing my prayer Lord God.
Yeah, if Atheism is true why fuss with the crazy Christians when you could be living it up with booze coke and hookers.
I just don’t get this guy at all.
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