The Pope's 'coup d'église'

DadaKopf

I was going to post this earlier this week but ended up not bothering. But an article in yesterday's Guardian, "The Pope - political activist, anti-globalist, totalitarian" decided I'd do it.

In short, the Pope has pulled off possibly one of the biggest peaceful political coups in modern history. Last week, the Pope appointed 31 of his favourites as cardinals - those cardinals, among others, will be given the arduous task of appointing the next leader of the Catholic church.

Each one of those cardinals are members of his loose coalition of radical conservatives in the church who are commited to fundamentalist Christian values. The Pope and his team of neocons are stalwartly anti-modern, anti-liberal, anti-capitalist, anti-totalitarian, anti-socialist, anti-globalist (an utter mass of contradictions). They want to set back the clock to way before the Vatican II catechism.

Perhaps we 'athiests' in the West painted over this little episode in history because we really don't figure religion affects us these days - and why should it, afterall, it doesn't directly interfere in political affairs (does it?). Or maybe we're just complacent, or coddled, or blind to the religious zeal on other continents, especially Africa and Latin America.

But this coup is going to have an enormous effect. In particular, I'm thinking of the AIDS pandemic in Africa, and to a lesser extent, Latin America. The Pope has fervently opposed contraception but condoms are the best way to prevent HIV transmission (people are gonna keep shagging, might as well stick a rubber on) but because of the Pope's constant proclamations, Catholics in Africa and Latin America are loathe to do so. The Pope says abstinence is the key - they're not doing a good job at that, though, are they? With this coup, the next successor is likely to parrot the same line.

By way of political analysis, that Guardian article reveals a lot about his, and his successor's, long-term strategy and its effects. Perhaps also worrying is the way in which certain encyclicals have pushed Catholics toward Evangelism which can tend to drive political extremeism. Furthermore, he envisages a confluence of politics and religion, which is the same attitude as Islam.

The knock on consequences of such processes are, I suppose, unknown - but it's important for us to bear this in mind in our secular bubble.

Personally, I'm not judging either way - I'm just raising questions for myself, really.

mike65

This'll proberly offend some but the current Pontif can't die soon enough, he's been nothing but bad news for both Catholics and the Catholic Church as an institiution. The older he gets the more hard-line his old-world views become.

Mike.

What do you expect? The church to suddenly become totally new-age and modern???

Any changes the church has made have always come decades after they were needed - also, as people become educated and better off, they suddenly realise how totally unbelievable 99% of this shít is.

mr_angry

Its nice to see we're part of a church that is so backward-thinking and stuck in the past, isn't it? The Pope tries to disguise this with the phrase "traditional Catholic values". What he really means is that the church should be running every institution in sight again.

Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to realise that the population is far more educated now than 100 years ago, and people wont accept the church running institutions that have nothing to do with religion (e.g. the Government)!

Don't get me wrong - I'm sure the Pope is doing it with good intentions for his 'flock', but I think he's viewing the past through rose-coloured glasses, and skipping over all the bad sh*t that happened. There was a reason for Vatican II, you know.

Personally, I'd like to see more Christian values in politics - rich countries giving a sh*t about poor countries. Unfortunately people like George Bush equate this with "God is on our side when we're blowing up the Muslims".

Victor

Originally posted by DadaKopf
In particular, I'm thinking of the AIDS pandemic in Africa, and to a lesser extent, Latin America. The Pope has fervently opposed contraception but condoms are the best way to prevent HIV transmission (people are gonna keep shagging, might as well stick a rubber on) but because of the Pope's constant proclamations, Catholics in Africa and Latin America are loathe to do so. The Pope says abstinence is the key - they're not doing a good job at that, though, are they? With this coup, the next successor is likely to parrot the same line.

Actually the Pope has said condoms can be used when the purpose is to avoid disease (as opposed to contraception), in particular AIDS.

TomF

It seems that at least one very early poster on this thread hasn't read the story by James Hastings on page 1 of "The Catholic Times" for today. It is about the new Cardinal-to-be Keith O'Brien of St Andrews and Edinburgh (Scotland). I'll quote the first paragraph of the story: "Scotland's new cardinal, Keith Patrick O'Brien, used his first official engagement to urge the Pope to allow a debate on married priests, gay clergy and artificial contraception." From the article, O'Brien sounds like one who would like to be busy making the Catholic Church into a larger version of the not too influential (but very politically-correct) churches of the Anglican variety. I didn't see anything about O'Brien's talk in today's "The Universe" or "The Irish Catholic". They may have too-long a lead time before going to press.

(I think O'Brien is the archbishop whose pectoral cross and vestments went missing in a foreign country recently, and he couldn't get any help at all from his embassy, and was steamed-up about it. Maybe God was trying to send a signal about O'Brien and the Pope missed it!)

Surely it is obvious to all fair-minded and intellegent people that John Paul II is one of the greatest popes of them all, and will go down in history with "the Great" after his name. I'm only sorry that Cardinal Ratzinger is too old to be a likely successor to John Paul.

Manach

Another voice in praise of the current Pope, whose principled support during the 80s, butressed the Polish Trade unions in their fight against Soviet imperialism.

Also, blame my poor Catholic education, I always though that a coup is launched by disaffected followers & not by the leader.

Finally, if there is blame to be shared for the Aids pandemic, spread some to the amoral Western drug companies for not allowing cheap generic drugs to treat the disease on the market.

mike65

Another voice in praise of the current Pope, whose principled support during the 80s, butressed the Polish Trade unions in their fight against Soviet imperialism.

hmmmm not that simple, well it is actually - The Pope's seriously anti-commie and the Strike was in his native country so its not a surprise he spoke out to support them or at least to undermine the Communist Polish state at the time....

Mike.

Sparks

2215, next Sunday, BBC1
A Panorama documentary on the detrimental effect that the pope's attitdes to sex have had on ordinary people.
Seems like it'd be of interest to those posting in this thread.

Victor

Originally posted by mike65
The Pope's seriously anti-commie

Wasn't that largely down to the Communist crackdown on religion (and personal feelings) as opposed to idealogical reasons.