Weekend at Bernie's II

Now that the hype surrounding the Pope’s death has died down a little, it is no longer too soon to speak ill of the dead. So before they get around to electing someone to take his place, it’s time to slag off Pope John Paul II.

Karol Jozef Wojtyla was an ultra conservative. As leader of 1.1 billion Catholics he failed utterly to move the church forward with the modern world. Instead clinging to antiquated ideas that are becoming increasingly out of place in today’s world.

Chief amongst these ideas is the issue of contraception; quite simply, it’s a no-no. What idiocy! Not only had the Pope’s church condemned the use of contraception, but actively took steps to prevent its use in third world countries. Countries where poverty is rife and is only increased as a result of more children being born. How many times have we seen aid groups advertising on television for donations, giving us a sob story about some poor guy who can’t afford to feed his 14 children? Let us also not forget how his church has condemned condom use in a world where there are 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS and a further 15 million children who have been orphaned by it. How many people has Pope John Paul II condemned to death for not allowing the use of a piece of latex? What purpose does it serve to oppose condom use anyway?

So you can’t use a condom and now you’re up the duff. According to the Pope, tough. You sure as hell aren’t going to have an abortion, that would be akin to murder, extermination, on the whole it’s pretty much full scale genocide! This time, our old friend Karol reckons it’s the same thing as the Holocaust. Although it seems to me that it’s a little easier to dispose of a few foetuses than it is 6 million fully grown human beings. Even for a pregnancy as a consequence of rape, even if it were a child whom the pregnancy would more than likely kill, no abortion under any circumstance. Why so much protection for a miniscule collection of cells?

It is possible for the church to move with the times, however slowly they may chose to. They’re not burning people at the stake any more for not believing what they say (although you can never be sure.) Galileo was right when he said the solar system was heliocentric, the Catholic Church said he was wrong and threatened to kill him if he didn’t renounce his claims. I’m pretty sure they agree with him now (although you can never be sure.) So as the world moves forward, we all realise that the things we used to be sure were right, weren’t actually at all. The Catholic Church seems less willing to do this and still insist that the meanings of a book written thousands of years ago be taken on face value.

What is probably most appalling about the moral authority with which the Pope wielded with his ideology, was his continuing failure to act against Priests around the world who have sexually abused small boys. Not only was no action taken within the church to prevent the continuance of this behaviour, but steps were taken to actively cover the whole thing up. Instead of Priests being shame and ex-communicated from the church, they were promoted to higher positions, or simply left to continue destroying the lives of children and their families with whom then were entrusted. The Pope turned a blind eye to horrific crimes against God, all the while condemning homosexuality as evil.

The most ridiculous thing about all this is the concept of Papal infallibility. Needless to say John Paul II was a staunch advocate and heavy promoter of this. Wouldn’t you too if you were the head of an organisation that insisted that whatever you said was correct and un-opposable by anyone, ever! What an utterly ridiculous and preposterous notion. Hmmm, now where else in the world would we find this kind of leadership structure, oh I know, North Korea. It sounds to me like the Vatican City is a dictatorship! Come on George W, let’s see you bring your democracy bandwagon into this town!

As I write this the conclave are in the process of electing a new Pope. The big question is whether the ultra conservatives will get their way and elect someone to keep the church in the dark ages; or will the cardinals see sense and elect a reformer to bring the church into the 21st century.