Polly Toynbee sticks it to the pope

Go, Polly! I would like to stand up and cheer.

Ms. Toynbee, you have found yourself a brand new fan!

The blatant hypocrisy of the Catholic Church is a stain on the fabric of civilization. And they want to make the Pope a saint, yet!

I'm not a Catholic, and from the religious rights perspective in this country (US) I'm probably not a christian. So my comments should be taken in that light.

As Bill Clinton said, the Pope's record is mixed. Basically the Pontificate is a political office and it must be judged in that light.

John-Paul was multifaceted.He was a great empathizer, as was Clinton, and communicator, as was Reagen. His stands on personal dignity and freedom were admirable. But he was also a doctrinaire ideologue, centralizer and in some ways a head in the sand conservative. In my opinion he had little use for the back and forth of political discourse. There was a "my way or the highway" attitude about him.

There will now be a spin contest to see which of those facets he will be remembered by.

From the same article:



Many years ago, I remember hearing an interview with Mother Theresa. Up until then, I blieved that she was a good person, doing very good work in terrible conditions.

Someone asked her why she did not counsel the people that she worked with about contraception. The reporter noted that many of these people could never emerge out of poverty if they did not have a means of limiting their children.

Her answer floored me. She said something like, "I am here to spread the word of God. I am not a social worker".

At that precise moment, I lost all respect for her as a person.

Thank you for the article, Don1. It comes closest to my own view of any I've read so far. I'm fractionally less angry, but not by much.

I just realised I posted this in two different forums, it's the senility setting in sorry peeps.

Wow! A really great article. I was impressed. Good follow-up comments by folks, too.

Don1, don't worry about posting this article in two places--it needs to be read by as many as possible.

Bernard Law, who covered up the horrible abuse to children by priests in Boston, is one of the council who will determine the next pope. He was rewarded by Jophn Paul instead of exposed for the weasel he is and was for 'transferring' errant priests instead of turning them in to the police. This, to me, is the sign of lax moral standards all around, especially at the top.

Perhaps John Paul was only acting according to the set of standards learned from the church, but that seems inexcusable for so brilliant a man as he obviously was. The same holds true for Mother Teresa; she was an intelligent woman who should have realized the great harm she was doing. Did either of them never question the ramifications of their actions? Is the church still a medieval institution which cares nothing for the individual human being, but only for the glory of the church? The answer seems obviously "yes."

Diane- When I heard that Law conducted a mass for the Pope, after the Pope's death, at the Vatican, I went ballistic. I think that if you can get beyond the pomp and circumstance, and really look at the way the church has conducted itself, you will find that it is a corrupt institution, interested only n its own self aggrandizement, and the people be damned!

I cringed at that too, Phoenix.

being an ex catholic but a very involved one when I was, and not at all now.......

no, not every cardinal is a c/law. Or let us hope not.

The catholic church is not replete with creeps, though it can seem so. Even I the long-gone doesn't make that jump, wary though I may be.

Osso- I think that the Catholic Church has had more of its share of institutionalized corruption. Law was in a position of "management", and set the tone for his underlings.

If Law had canned the pedophile priests at the getgo, and reported them to the police, I would bet that the perverts would be on notice that the Church would not stand for their criminal behavior. By shifting these criminals from one parish to another, and not informing the new parish, Law, IMO, was tacitly approving the behavior of those people.

Personally, I could never understand why he was not charged with being a part of a conspiracy to sexually assault minors!