An article entitled "Some Reflections on the Recent Papacy of JPII"

[flordehinojos]

by Matthew Fox, Ph.D...at Opednews.com

(snip) ...I really do believe that history will not be kind to this papacy. This pope and his self-appointed German mafia headed by Cardinal Ratzinger will have to face the judgement of history (and very likely God also) over issues that include but are not limited to the following:

A pre-occupation with morality as sexual issues even when this morality is deeply flawed. I include the following examples:
--The forbidding of one billion Catholics world wide to practice birth control even while the human population explodes at the seams.
--The forbidding of the use of condoms even in a time when AIDS is killing individuals and whole populations the world over.
--The head-long pursuit of Augustine's theology of sexuality (all sex must be legitimized by having children)
--Ugly attacks in the pope's name against homosexuals and the complete ignoring of what science and professional psychological associations have learned about homosexuality (for example, that it is a natural phenomenon for 8-10% of any given human population as well as over 460 non-human species).

Other attacks include documents against yoga (yes!); against Buddhism (calling it "atheism"); against Thich Naht Hahn (calling him the "anti-Christ"); against feminist philosophers; against women (girls cannot serve at the altar; nor can women be priests); against theologians in general. Priests are forbidden to use the pronoun "she" for God at the altar. (snip)

more at,http://www.opednews.com/foxmatthew_040405_pope.htm

Very good read!

[Eloriel]

1. Well, thank GOD. At last a little "balance" to the praise-a-thon

Is that the Creation Theology Matthew Fox? Not exactly a lightweight, tho I believe he was excommunicated, was he not?

Edit: Yes, it does seem to be one and the same.

This is really an important bit of info from the column:


A prolonged effort to render fascism fashionable. This includes the rushing into canonization of the card-carrying fascist priest who founded the Opus Dei movement even though this man actually praised Adolf Hitler and also denounced women and has been accused of sexual abuse of six young men who are alive today.

The taking of Opus Dei under the hand of the papacy granting it legitimacy and power within and without the Catholic structure.

Opus Dei -- Scalia, the spy Hanson (sp?), several PNACers whose names escape me at the moment. He's not joking that they're fascists.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. To the Opus Dei list you can add the British Education Secretary

Ruth Kelly.

[Matilda]

2. Thanks for posting that!

I'm really up to here with listening to endless praise for this pope,
with only a few scattered opinion pieces reminding us of those areas
in which he failed. And I'm speaking as a practising Catholic.

I've been unable to post in the Catholic Forum on this issue, because
it just isn't what anyone wants to hear. But while I admired the
man's intellect, I was deeply disappointed at the narrowness of his
thinking, and his complete lack of vision. What he was best at,
quite honestly, was self-promotion - he was a master at media
manipulation, and the sheeple (and the media) fell for it.

Certainly he reached out to people of other faiths, but that was a
process started by his predecessor, John XXIII - now there was a
true Christian! JP spoke against war, and the death penalty, and
that was good, but damned if I can think of anything else he did
for humanity.

He was not responsible for the collapse of communism in eastern
Europe, he did nothing at all for women (he thought St. Teresa was
the ideal of womanhood - please!), his attitude to the use of
condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS was IMO was both unchristian
and stupid (and just short of criminal), and the cover-up of sexual
abuse by priests was uncaring and even contemptuous towards the
victims.

By appointing only like-minded clerics to the position of cardinal,
regardless of whether they are the best-qualified pastorally has
ensured that he will continue to control the Church from beyond the
grave - how's that for egoism? I think that if the Church does
continue down the same road, they will lose followers in ever-
increasing numbers, and perhaps that is the only way we can get back
to the ideals of John XXIII and Vatican II, and in time I hope that
people will come to recognise that the greatest pope of the 20th
century was not John Paul, but Blessed John.

[flordehinojos]

4. there was a priest, earlier this week, on one the propaganda/news channels

talking about his conversations with PJII. According to the priest, he and the Pope talked about what was the language that would most reach human beings. According to the priest who was a scientist once upon a time, the Pope felt that the language of science reduced the human heart to almos nothingness, while the language of poetry and the theater would get to the hearts of us humans right in the center of our beings .

when i first heard the priest, i thought, how wonderful! a pope, who, because of his initial career training can appreciate the beautiful language of being.

after reading Fox's article ... i am wondering just how much the Pope's use of poetic language to address the faithful was due to it being the way his heart thought and felt about things, or how much of it was based on just his knowledge that elevating his speeches to the level of poetic language WOULD really hit the people where he wanted it to hit (in other words) how much of it was manipulation?

So ... it seems that at some deeper level, i am in agreement with you and Fox and on some level i feel like some unseen tsunami has hit my own thinking about this Pope and his honesty and his integrity, which i have lauded pretty much until i read Fox's article.

:)