[Chancellor Palpatine]

The Pope didn't direct them to oppose slavery, and a century later, didn't direct them to oppose segregation. Whether by moral ineptitude or by design, it always seems that the Vatican seems to prefer a world with a small number of oligarchs and a large number of impoverished peasants, which are conveniently easy to control. I call it "global Guatemalicization", named after the impoverished Catholic peasantry of Central America. An independent, economically self sufficient middle class doesn't integrate well into the Vatican mindset - they're more likely to throw off the yoke.

[ventana]

And yet a dutiful middle class here and elsewhere is tolerant, educates their children not to be racist, and is faithful to the church: attending mass, supporting their Catholic schools, living their lives and helping the less fortunate with a helping hand. I see it right in my inner city parish: we provide a ton of help to the less fortunate: clothing for infants of the poor; food for the hungry; prison ministry; a building made available for the local headstart program. I see it in the charitable works of my daugther's Catholic school--more of the aforementioned. Or my son's Catholic high school--an incredibly well organized Christmas party down in New York city's village at a Salesian run parochial school serving the poor. A bus full of pro-life young men, middle and upper class kids, going to the March for Life on Wednesday where they will freeze their tails off! Because they think it's right. They are not so cynical as you Chancellor.

I attended a friend's funeral in Harlem two months ago at the Church of the Resurrection--it runs a parochial school in a clean, sound building within the Church. Supported by funds siphoned from the collection plates of the suburban middle class, many of whom can't afford Catholic schools for their own children, and yet the charity continues. And I will bet most of the kids at that school or at the Headstart building are Catholic. I see that there is a great deal of fruitfulness from the virtue of charity inspired by a Catholic faith. You may have a point that the hierarchy is slow to act, but knowledgeable Catholics will point out that Saints don't usually come from the hierarchy--that doesn't mean we don't need a hierarchy. V's wife.

[sitetest]

Dear CP,

The Catholic Church loudly opposed segregation, even prior to the 1950s. The Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Washington were integrated prior to Brown vs. Board of Education.

In Louisiana, through the 1950s and early 1960s, Archbishop Rummel pronounced that pro-segregationist Catholic legislators who voted for specific pro-segregation legislation incurred automatic excommunication. In 1962, he formally excommunicated three specific individuals for, "hinder[ing] his orders or provok[ing] the devoted people of this venerable archdiocese to disobedience or rebellion in the matter of opening our schools to all Catholic children".

In fact, if you do a little googling for yourself, you will find references to opposition to John Kennedy in 1960 on the basis that he would be forced to toe the pro-integrationist line of the Catholic Church.


sitetest