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Caritas in Veritate!
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own".
-Thomas Jefferson letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814
Joey Ratzinger is in town for the first time to say “our bad” for all the unfortunate naughtiness that sexually molested and destroyed the lives of thousands of kids here in the old USofA for half a century and probably more . “Sorry." Sorry here too, praying with a few victims is decades late and a little too little. Former Nazi Youth Corps member, (oops not really----it was all a mistake and not my fault), Pope Benedict XVI has come to America to criticize us for being a secular democracy, being meanies to Negroes and Indians and----what was it? Oh, yes---for separation of church and state:
“Perhaps America’s brand of secularism poses a particular problem,” he told American bishops here. “It allows for professing belief in God, and represents the public role of religion and the churches, but at the same time can subtly reduce religious belief to a lowest common denominator.”
And speaking of ‘Lowest Common Denominators‘, did anyone else think that George Bush‘s moronic greeting on the Pontiff's arrival was a bit like, well, like the “heck of a job-Brownie” moment? I mean, telling the Pope his ’talk’ was awesome, patting him on the arm like scratching Barny for being good and then telling him to sit down because another song was coming, exemplified the nadir that is Bush America------so shameful and embarrassing, it’s beyond appalling. Clearly Little Bush was like- totally awed by Christendom's most avid anti-democracy fascist.
As for churches, Ratzi has clearly stated that only the Catholic Church is the true one, etc, etc. and so forth:
“The June 2007 clarification of ‘Dominus Iesus‘, approved by the Pope, restated the Catholic Church's position that because of their lack of bishops in the historic episcopate, Protestant faith communities "are not true Churches," as contrasted with Orthodox communities, which have bishops in the apostolic line and are therefore are considered true, if deficient, Churches.”
So, having eliminated all but some Orthodox Christian sects, Ratzi must have been criticizing American Catholics, because Protestant churches aren’t churches...you see the point. So, Jews? Forget it! And you Moslems---- you got nailed back in the Byzantine period by Pope What's-his-name. Who’s to question ex-cathedra and the last fossil remnant of the divine right of kings. Ratzi is the pyramidal apex of an authoritarian corporation that hasn’t had a democratic moment since probably the fourth century, with the possible exception of blowing white or black smoke up your cassock every few decades or so.
Pope Ratzinger is big on ‘'LOVE" these days---- a far cry from his inquisitor heyday and kissing John Paul’s nasty power ring:
Pope Benedict has to date written two encyclicals, Deus Caritas Est (Latin for "God is Love"), and Spe Salvi ("Saved by Hope").
“In his first encyclical, "God is love", he said that a human being, created in the image of God who is love, is able to practice love: to give himself to God and others (agape), by receiving and experiencing God's love in contemplation (eros). This life of love, according to him, is the life of the saints such as Teresa of Calcutta and the Blessed Virgin Mary, and is the direction Christians take when they believe that God loves them in Jesus Christ.
Pope Benedict's second encyclical titled Spe Salvi ("Saved by Hope"), about the virtue of hope, was released on November 30, 2007. His third encyclical will be social in nature, and reportedly an extension of Pope Paul VI's encyclical Populorum Progressio, and will be title Caritas in Veritate (charity in truth).”
Isn’t that special and christian of him? Love, Hope, Charity. These virtues are not usually the power points of popes (just ask Dante!) except for exceptional souls such as Pope John XXIII. Such virtues certainly don’t represent Ratzinger’s doleful vicious history of suppressing liberation theology, crippling ecumenical dialogue, destroying the advances of Vatican II, his ban on contraceptives which has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent women, children born with HIV, and the destruction of whole communities and villages----a-kind-of genocidal instrument of faith.
Ratzinger’s unrelenting hatred of GLBT peoples is well documented. He considers them ‘intrinsically disordered’ and thus, I would surmise, outside his love, hope, and charity thing. There are exceptions, of course, such as the Catholic closet which breeds a particularly hateful type of homophobe. How an old eunuch, ex-Nazi, power driven celibate courtier can come up with any genuine insights into eros (much less agape) is probably one of those divine mysteries----like miracles, virgin birth, or infallibility.
But having long ago jettisoned Catholic theology along with notions of the flat earth and the ex-communication of Galileo, we move toward that which we are somewhat more familiar. We find interesting the notion of Catholic closets, particularly those of the clergy, or as 'D-List' Kathy Griffin might opine----'the Gay-gy'. Being spawns, minions, and journeyman secularists, we know drag when we see it.
Pope Ratzinger seems to have an inordinate interest in fashion. What’s in the Pope’s closet? Well if you can get past the Nazi skeletons, you will find:
“Pope Benedict XVI has re-introduced several papal garments which had previously fallen into disuse. Pope Benedict XVI resumed the use of the traditional red papal shoes, which had not been used since early in the pontificate of Pope John Paul II. Contrary to the initial speculation of the press that the shoes had been made by the Italian fashion house Prada, the Vatican announced that the shoes were provided by the pope's personal cobbler.
On December 21, 2005, the pope began wearing the camauro, the traditional red papal hat usually worn in the winter. It had not been seen since the pontificate of Pope John XXIII (1958–1963). On September 6, 2006 the pope began wearing the red cappello romano (also called a saturno), a wide-brimmed hat for outdoor use. Rarely used by John Paul II, it was more widely worn by his predecessors.
Pope Benedict XVI has also restored the use of all three forms of the papal mozzetta. While only the red satin summer mozzetta was used by John Paul II, Benedict XVI has also made use of the winter papal mozzetta and the paschal mozzetta, both of which were last worn by Pope Paul VI. The winter papal mozzetta is of red velvet trimmed with white ermine, and the paschal mozzetta, worn only during the Eastertide, is of white damask silk trimmed with white ermine.
During his installment address, Pope Benedict XVI spoke at length about the significance of the pallium, and he has returned to an ancient version of the vestment, an Eastern design, used by the popes of the first millennium. Benedict XVI has also returned to wearing traditional forms of other liturgical vestments to emphasize the continuity of the papacy and the church.
One item that Benedict has not worn to date is the papal tiara. Like his two immediate predecessors, Benedict chose not to be crowned with the tiara during his Inauguration Mass, nor has he worn it since that time. Unlike them, however, he has emphasized this decision by breaking with prior tradition in using a mitre instead of the tiara in his coat of arms. Other traditional pontifical vestments remain unused as well, including the fanon, the pontifical gloves, and the papal slippers.
Fellini Fashion Show ~ 'Roma'
Franco Zeffirelli, the famed Italian film director of numerous lavish productions, criticized the Pontiff's vestments as being too "showy." He said that, "These are not times of high-tailored church wear". Zeffirelli believes that Pope Benedict's garments are "too sumptuous" and make the pontiff appear cold and removed from his surroundings.[88] The Vatican explained Benedict's use of traditional vestments such as older, much taller miters during his "Urbi et Orbi" Christmas greeting by pointing to the need "to underline the continuity of today's liturgical celebration with that which characterized the life of the church in the past." The Pope's liturgist likened the use of vestments worn by previous popes to annotations in papal documents, where "a pope cites the pontiffs who preceded him in order to indicate the continuity of the church's magisterium.”
“Magisterium!” That sums it up perfectly and from the horse’s own mouth.
Tiaras, velvet capes, ermine, satin gowns, jewels, golden wands, designer pumps, embroidered accessories----if it looks like a drag duck, quacks like a drag duck, and walks like a drag duck: it’s a drag. Period. What pisses off so many in the GLBT community is that the old bird has all the advantages of being a gay drag queen without the onus---actually make that the ‘intrinsic disordered thing'. Disordered is right! Hey, it's just a thought-----if the virgin mother Mary became Queen of Heaven, who's to say Ratzi can't. Huh?
“Is it consistent for practicing Catholics to ignore or exploit the poor and the marginalized.” Ratzi, clicking his ruby reds together, would probably agree with Little Bush that the best way to help the poor is to go shopping. You can bet that if Pope John Paul was to Reagan what Ratzi is to Dubya, then the infinite well of the nadir is arrived. Caritas in Veritate!
