[Peace-discuss] On the Bishop of Rome…

[Brussel Morton K.]

An addendum to the "Bishop of Rome" mention given by Carl in our  
AWARE meeting last Sunday:

By Ray McGovern.

The whole article is enlightening. See

http://www.counterpunch.org/mcgovern04222008.html.

Excerpts follow.

…Catholics All Around

Think back to last week and the many prominent Catholics who flocked  
to see the pope--many of them officials with considerable influence  
in the Judiciary and Legislature, with important players in the  
Executive Branch as well.

There they were, with their families, the five Catholic Supreme Court  
justices, fresh from detailed deliberations on how best to implement  
state-sponsored killings, executions that are banned by virtually  
every civilized country.

Justice Scalia audibly salivated over how much noxious chemical  
should be shot into the veins of a “condemned,” and how quickly.   
(For those with strong stomachs, C-SPAN captured the proceedings.)

I am embarrassed to acknowledge that, like me, Scalia is the product  
of a Jesuit education (Xavier H.S. in Manhattan and Georgetown  
College).  Despite his advocacy of “soft” torture techniques like  
driving nails under fingernails, Scalia continues to be lionized by  
many Jesuits and bishops alike.…


…Iraq is a shambles.  Two million Iraqis have fled abroad; another  
two million are internal refugees.  Am I the only one who finds  
macabre the raging debate as to whether the attack and occupation of  
Iraq has resulted in a million or “only 300,000” Iraqis dead?

Apparently, the pope did not have any opinion on the Iraq war.

But Torture?

Surely the pope would speak out against the kind of torture for which  
our country has become famous: Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, CIA “black  
sites”--the more so, since Jesus of Nazareth was tortured to death.   
The pope chose silence, which presumably came as welcome relief to  
five-star torturer’s apprentice, Gen. Michael Hayden, now head of the  
CIA.  The White House has made clear that Hayden is ready to instruct  
his torturers to water board again, upon Caesar’s approval.…

Saturday at the UN, the pontiff pontificated on “God-given human  
rights” and “massive human rights abuses,” but pretty much left it at  
that.  The Washington Post reported that the pope was “short on  
specifics and long on broad themes.”

But there was one specific.  Here in the U.S., the pope seemed to  
prefer to dwell again and again on the pedophilia scandal--to the  
exclusion of much else.…

While still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he headed The Congregation for  
the Doctrine of the Faith--the Vatican office that once ran the  
Inquisition.  In that capacity he sent a letter in May 2001 to all  
Catholic bishops throwing a curtain of secrecy over the widespread  
sexual abuse by clergy, warning the bishops of severe penalties,  
including excommunication for breaching “pontifical secrets.”

Lawyers acting for the sexually abused accused Ratzinger of “clear  
obstruction of justice.”…

I had hoped--naively, it turned out--that the pope might encourage  
his brother bishops to find the courage to state plainly what 109  
bishops of the Methodist faith, George W. Bush’s tradition, declared  
on Nov. 8, 2005:

“We repent of our complicity in what we believe to be the unjust and  
immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq.  In the face of the United  
States Administration’s rush toward military action based on  
misleading information, too many of us were silent.

“We confess our preoccupation with institutional enhancement and  
limited agendas while American men and women are sent to Iraq to kill  
and be killed, while thousands of Iraqi people needlessly suffer and  
die.”

I had thought that perhaps the U.S. Catholic bishops could adopt the  
kind of resolution that 125 Methodist bishops signed on Nov. 9,  
2007.  Speaking truth to power, the Methodists called for an  
immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and the reversal of any  
plans to establish permanent military bases there.

The Methodist bishops’ resolution noted:  “Every day that the war  
continues, more soldiers and innocent civilians are killed with no  
end in sight to the violence, bloodshed, and carnage.”  Bishop Jack  
Meadors summed up the situation succinctly:

“The Iraq war is not just a political issue or a military issue.  It  
is a moral issue.” (emphasis added)…

Augustine wrote:

“Hope has two beautiful daughters: their names are anger and  
courage.  Anger that things are the way they are.  Courage to make  
them the way they ought to be.”



Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the  
ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington, DC.  He is  
on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for  
Sanity (VIPS). He is a contributor to Imperial Crusades: Iraq,  
Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey  
St. Clair (Verso).
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