From CNN:
"In the Vatican, he has been the driving force behind crackdowns on liberation theology, religious pluralism, challenges to traditional moral teachings on issues such as homosexuality, and dissent on such issues as women's ordination."
Oh, and that little stint as a member of Hitler's youth party in 1943? That was nothing.....
And is it just me, or does it look like they just elected Robert Blake as Pope? Maybe there's hope to reviving his acting career after all.
And that rushing sound you hear? That's what's left of the American Catholics leaving the church.
UPDATE: Can you say ecclesiastical totalitarianism? And Andrew Sullivan is REALLY upset.
UPDATE #2: It appears that Ratzinger's involvement in the Hitler Youth Party was compulsory - not elective, as was his conscription into the army. He later spent time as a POW in a German detention camp, before being allowed to return to the seminary. I don't think ay comparison to Kurt Waldheim or other reputed Nazi sympathizers is warranted - he was only 18 at the time.
UPDATE#3: I just loved this. Gawker thinks he looks like Paul Wolfowitz in a Halloween outfit. Heh. |
I'm sorry, but gay Catholics are even more foolish than gay Republicans... at least gay Republicans could be seen to have a vested financial interest in the triumph of big business.
Andrew Sullivan has long since rendered himself credibility-free with his continual apologetics for the causes he supports. If he believes the Gospels, great. What does that have to do with the repressive backwards Catholic Church? Absolutely nothing.