Retired Roman Catholic Bishop Giacomo Babini says the "eternal enemies" of Catholicism are out to do the church in. He singled out "freemasons and Jews." Channeling Josef Goebbels, he went on:
...whose mutual entanglements are not always easy to see through… I think that it is primarily a Zionist attack, in view of its power and refinement. They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God-killers."
Prominent conservative Catholics have been flailing about wildly trying to pin the child molestation disaster on somebody or some thing not connected with the Roman Church.
They've blamed the New York Times, homosexuals, the 60's, Masons, working mothers, secularism, and Old Scratch himself. Soon to be included, no doubt: The Simpsons, videogames, gangsta rap, and the heartbreak of psoriasis.
They are having an extraordinarily difficult time coming to the obvious conclusion, the one already reached by millions around the globe: Something is wrong with Holy Mother Church.
I would say that the sound of axes grinding is deafening from all sides. The liberals are using the crisis to trot out their well-exercised hobbyhorses and take shots at a conservative Pope and the conservatives are holding the fort. The Vatican badly needs further reform. But some of the medicines offered may not do much for the ailment.
The New York Times is capable of grinding an axe or two itself. (Ask Bill and Hillary.) You don’t have to be a conservative to think that some of their articles have been slanted and less than attentive to detail, and when Maureen Dowd is riding herd on Benedict and Ross Douthat is actually making a limited amount of sense then definitely all’s not well.
Latest news: Dawkins and Hitchens, C. are comparing the Pope to Pinochet.
Posted by: Hypatia | April 12, 2010 at 04:16 PM
I don't know why they're griping about the Times. You could argue the Wash Post has been tougher. Plus, the Times printed John Allen's piece which was pretty favorable, overall, to Benedict. (Maureen Dowd is an idiot; I'm not counting her.)
Still, complaining about persecution is pretty rich coming from people who turned a blind eye to child molestation until fairly recently.
Benedict's record could be better, but it seems better than John Paul II's. At least Benedict went after Maciel.
Posted by: John Petty | April 12, 2010 at 06:43 PM
The coverage has been driven by the Times, not the Post - the other media outlets have been taking their cue from the NYT in this instance. I'm not inclined to blame the Vatican for dumb stuff said by elderly bishops in front of open mikes but something certainly has to be done about Bertone.
It's hard to know what to make of some of this news coverage. Having sex with a sixteen year old is a bad thing and a violation of the duty of pastoral care but it isn't pedophilia by the longest shot.
Posted by: Hypatia | April 13, 2010 at 11:45 AM
It's not just the Times. This has been all over the European press for at least a year.
I'm not as kind to elderly bishops as you are. You don't get to be a racist and an anti-semite just because you're old.
RE: pedophilia. They'd like to blame it on gays, but about 20-25% of the victims were female. That puts the lie to that little strategy right there.
Posted by: John Petty | April 13, 2010 at 12:10 PM