Can you imagine Germany without holocaust guilt or America without its knowledge of the crimes of slavery?
At this year’s Vatican Easter service , students of the Legion of Christ provided the liturgical service at the vigil. The Vatican took over the Legion last May 1 after confirming its founder was a pedophile.
Ed. I did not post this last week, on Easter ,because I did not want to hurt my Catholic friends. At the same time, as a non Christian, one thing strikes me as dreadful .. the Roman Church’s limitless ability to forgive itself for its misdeeds.
Oh yeh John Paul II may deserve a lot of admiration, but .. this same Roman Church beatified its last Pope a few days after Easter. How arrogant of any human to declare another human a demigod! Beyond John Paul, a true Statesman, the Roman heritage that once deified Caesar is also planning to deify two of its worst rules .. Pious IX and Pious XII. If there were a good God, He would see the blood is on these Pope’s hands and the Church should only earn God’s respect by repentance rather than beatification.
Why is that the cleanest looking people- priests dressed in white for example- often turn out to be the dirtiest? If someone needs to loudly proclaim ‘I am religious’ or ‘I am good’ or if an institution has to proclaim ‘We have lots of saints!’ then the rational response is always to suspect otherwise. The truly spiritual/holy does not manifest that way. This is all about money and power. But I will say that I don’t think the Catholic Church is a lost cause, if it can be turned over to women.
Isn’t this what the Buddha meant by attachment? The Pope and the Dalai lama both seem rather attached to their robes, althoughthe Roman heritage woven onto the Popes’ cloth of gold is a lot more ostentatious then the clothes the Dali Lama wears.
A rich benefactor of Gandhi was once reprimanded by the Mahatma for wearing fine cloth rather than simple homespun. The rich man replied, “Bapu, if you only know how much it cost me to have you dress as your do!”
To me, though, the most arrogant part of the Papacy is the idea that, rather than its God, is able to bestow sainthood. I think they inherited this tradition from Caligula and his horse.