[Peace-discuss] Catholics oppose public Catholic funeral forarch-heretic Kennedy.

[C. G. Estabrook]

The inquisition was a new type of legal proceeding invented in the high middle 
ages by a culture that had a much higher opinion of human reason than we do.  It 
invented the university as a theoretical parallel to its practical legal system. 
  Both involved asking -- and hoping to find the answers to -- questions. 
Inquisition as a legal practice grew up in the 13th century as a way of finding 
out the truth in a practical dispute; disputation as an academic practice grew 
up in the 13th century as a way of finding out the truth in a theoretical 
dispute. (See the brilliant book by C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image, for this 
foreign way of looking at the world.)

Most people now think of the "Spanish Inquisition" (even if no one expects it, 
according to Monty Python), when they hear the term.  Two centuries later the 
Spanish crown seized control of the court in an act of state feudalism (cf. 
state capitalism) and employed it largely to build up their resources by 
extortion from rich merchants, often converted Jews and Muslims. The fearsome 
reputation of the court even under royal control, was part of la leyenda negra, 
notably the propaganda of the English crown in the following years, when even 
accomplished playwrights were spies (and in Kit Marlowe's case got stuck with 
the bill...).

Celtic and Roman traditions in Christianity were interestingly different -- 
there were fewer such varieties in the West that in the East -- but they were in 
fact settled relatively amicably, as in e.g. the Synod of Whitby, 664 CE.

As David says, it's a mixed bag. The wheat and the tares grow together, as we've 
been advised.  --CGE


unionyes wrote:
> Not to mention the Inquesition and the suppresion of the Gaelic traditions of
> Ireland and other cultures / countries via imperialism !
> 
> On the other hand, there seems to be a parallel culture in the catholic 
> church that ; fought for civil rights, the rights of workers to organize into
> Unions, Dorathy Day and the Catholic Worker House Movement, liberation
> theology, and the Marry Knoll order / SOA WATCH ( School of the America's
> Watch ) and their brave and persistent civil disobeideance that I had the
> pleasure to witness first hand in Washington D.C. in the spring of 2001, when
> I was a guest at their Mary Knoll Order House as a rank and file Carpenter
> battling corporate unionism, and participated in their march around the
> Pentagon ( " PRESENTE " - reading the names of the Latin American victims of
> the torture school of the school of the Americas... chilling and inspiring  )
> and then subsequent civil disobeidience actions in which dozens were
> arrested. Spilling their own blood ( that they drained from themselves the
> day before ) and blocking access to the Pentegon bldg. Some of the bravest
> and most principled activists I have ever met ! Including Father Roy
> Bourgoise and Father " Pancho ", who was a priest born and raised in Kentucky
> and spent most of his adult life in Bolivia until he had to leave the country
> due to death threats because he started a cooperative bank for peasant
> campesino farmers with low interest loans ( 1% on average ), that cut into
> the loan sharking business of the wife of the local Bolivian military
> commander who was charging 20 % + interest. When the Bolivian military
> commander issued the death threats to Father Pancho and said he had 24-hours
> to leave the country, Father pancho asked why, at which point the military
> commander stated that Father Pancho was a " Communist ". When Father Pancho
> denied he was a Communist and that he was only trying to help the " common
> man ", the military commander stated ; " If you support the common man, you
> are a Communist " !
> 
> When I met Father Pancho at the Mary Knoll House in D.C., I thought he was
> the caretaker / janitor because he dressed and acted so humbly and was so
> working class.
> 
> So it's a mixed bag, much like the history of the U.S..
> 
> David J.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- *From:* Neil Parthun
> <mailto:lennybrucefan at gmail.com> *To:* John W. <mailto:jbw292002 at gmail.com> 
> *Cc:* Peace-discuss <mailto:peace-discuss at anti-war.net> ; E. Wayne Johnson
> <mailto:ewj at pigs.ag> *Sent:* Saturday, August 29, 2009 1:40 PM *Subject:* Re:
> [Peace-discuss] Catholics oppose public Catholic funeral forarch-heretic
> Kennedy.
> 
> An organization that sanctified the slave trade for centuries, collaborated
> with the Nazis during World War II, has helped to foment an AIDS/HIV epidemic
> in Africa by not not sanctioning condoms as they are 'science' preventing
> God's work, allowed decades of paedophilia and kept priests from the legal
> ramifications of their horrific crimes, et al., really doesn't have much of a
> moral high ground to throw stones at anybody.
> 
> Solidarity, -N.
> 
> Neil Parthun IEA Region 9 Grassroots Political Activist Writer/Facilitator
> for Champaign-Urbana Public i
> 
> "Early in life I had learned that if you want something, you had better make
> some noise." - Malcolm X
> 
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