W. CHRIS

I agree with you about the present pope,  but the previous one, on international TV, when he encountered Bush and Laura, humiliated him, castigating him for the attack on Iraq, just as he did Bush One, saying he "...Bombed these poor people back into the Stone Age..." and urged America to stop the embargo. Bush sat holding Laura's hand, looking as though he need to puke or hide somewhere under a bed or in a closet. That pope, went to nations where priests, ministers and nuns, were being jailed and murdered and condemned the actions of those who were committing mayhem upon the people, even in his tottering old age. These fellows which become pope are often conservative and do not necessarily represent the views of their world congragation (recall the (Fathers) Berrigan brothers and a good many priests and renegade nuns of the Viet Nam era)?

There are scattered across America, and I am certain elsewhere, a good many priests, and ministers, who have taken Bush to task, among them the writer Father Greeley. There are also those priest’s, brothers, and nuns, those who take the vow of poverty and chastity, who KEEP those vows. Unfortunately a few who do not get all the publicity. I sit on the financial board of directors of a missionary group of dedicated men and women, who live in poverty and have dedicated their lives, as did Mother Teresa and others, to helping the poor.

I have more than once castigated this fascist-appearing pope, I have sent him emails asking him questions about his support, in 2000 while he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, and in 2004 as pope, of GW Bush, on the Vatican site, to which he has never responded. My now famous painting and articles in which all the prime neo-con's portraits adorn the faces of those on Michelagnello's Last Judgment and my predictions concerning the distant future of the pope and Pat Robertson and, more importantly, then, immediate future of Jerry Fallwell written and posted 5-13 07, 2 days before his death.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/2/opedne_professo_070513_the_evils_which_brou.htm

My website in which the art can be seen that appeared in:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_professo_070525_neo_cons_in_hell_21.htm 

Is http://www.bagnoloart.com
Enter the site, navigate the across the top of the page to the EXPERIMENTAL button, CLICK IT, scroll down 4 rows on left click on picture to blow it up and see the portraits. The painting was begun in Spring 2005, completed in spring of 2006 and posted to the online gallery soon after. Everyone on it since has been fired, under indictment or investigation or (in Fallwell’s case,) dead. The pope was to have been also on it, but the indication was that a good many churches who liked the painting would not hang it if the present pope was on it, so I am doing a separate one with him on it, now for others.

by PetetheProf (62 articles, 0 quicklinks, 394 comments) on Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 10:19:11 AM
 

fair distinction

Your distinction between the Popes is entirely fair and if I write a similar pices I'll make sure to make that clear.  Frankly, I don't enjoy writing such pieces at all as I'd rather give religious institutions (all of them) the benefit of the doubt, but this pope, as you say, has an exceedingly suspect history. Also, we should never forget that fundamentalists come in all forms, very much including Catholic. 

Thank you again for your useful information and sites.

 Bill

by wcepler (90 articles, 3 quicklinks, 28 comments) on Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 12:23:53 PM
 

Fair acknowledgement

I thank you.

Also, I have encountered Catholic Fundamentalism. It is born of a pre-Neanderthalic Consanguinity, of an IQ deprived male and a female who tends to read comic books and Cliff notes of the bible, written by students of the Fallwell-Robertson school of the See Dick and Jane Run theology.

Otherwise I liked your column.

by PetetheProf (62 articles, 0 quicklinks, 394 comments) on Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 1:32:44 PM
 

Look at its History

Where has the Roman Church been in South America these past four hundred years? Why all the poverty and squalor? Why the rotten class system down there? Why are we getting so many Latino illegals? What are they running from? The Roman Church will always go to bed with whatever authoritariaqn power is in office and become its apologist.

Remember dictators like Pinochet? Peron? Batista? Salazar? etc. They were practicing RC's.

Where was the Pope during the Holocaust? 

Remember Hitler? Mussoloini? Franco? They were practicing RC's. 

If you consider Roman Church history you can see that it always goes to bed with authoritarian dictators.

See them for what they practice not what they preach. 

by Bucky (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 19 comments) on Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 1:36:51 PM
 

PetetheProf

I agree this was a great post with many good points and your comments were excellent and insightful, as well, and as usual. You had me, lol with the below comment.

"Also, I have encountered Catholic Fundamentalism. It is born of a pre-Neanderthalic Consanguinity, of an IQ deprived male and a female who tends to read comic books and Cliff notes of the bible, written by students of the Fallwell-Robertson school of the See Dick and Jane Run theology." - PetetheProf

by rcg (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 65 comments) on Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 4:50:08 PM
 

"Bucky "

Can't answer your rhetorical question, I was not there then. I speak of individuals, and my family in Italy rebelled against the hierarchy, and often(One of my many rebellious ancestors was Duke Bagnolo, who organized the Albigensian Heresy, another, St. John Leonardi was a canonized Saint.

I, as a man, a scientist, and a believer, detest dogma, and I operate on my own, I do not believe in Generalizing about people's ethnicity, religion, skin color, gender or neighborhood-I find bigotry and generalization among the most despicable of self-degrading faults, only slightly more repugnant than disrespect and bad manners. As my career started, with all the academic honors I held I was offered all sorts of jobs with great benefits and high position, but until I decided to marry, I cooked and ate in soup kitchens, and still do so whenever I have time.

Some men who run organized religions are no more moral than those who run governments, or corporations. An Irish Cardinal whose offices were in the basement of the Vatican ran the underground railroad sneaking Hebrews in and through to safety at risk of his life, so did many of my uncles aunts and cousins, when I was a child, fourth Generation American. Many of my family in Italy during WWII planned to and did fight in the underground as did one of my mentors who now lives here. Nonetheless, today I have many friends who are of German extraction.

In South America, the very Order, in which I serve as board member, and several others, which priests honor the vow of poverty, work side-by-side with the poorest of the poor, helping them. These men have dedicated their lives to helping the poor, living under the same conditions they do.

Although I detest the "Christian Right" of (which they are neither), I do have many friends of various Protestant faiths who feel the same way. I have friends-close one's, which practice the Hebrew Faith, one of my teammates (Baseball) is a Buddhist, and two others are black-Muslim.

I generalize about no one. Most men of honor are well aware of what SOME people related to us, or of our faith, or of others, have done, and do not at all like what some have done, which if anyone had taken the time, as good researchers do before they comment, to read many of my columns, you would find my criticism of THIS pope, strong and often. On the other hand, I am not completely perfect, myself, nor are any one I know. Lastly, I see little difference between some of the things about which you complain to me and religious bigotry, the very evil that has been used as an excuse for genocide and is rampant against our Muslim Brothers and sisters right now, just as it was against our Jewish brothers and sisters. Shall we now condemn all Catholics, lumping them together, as Hitler did the Jews and now the Christian Right does the Muslims and Arabs?

It is easy to blab bigotry, but since you have asked me the question, what have you done for the poor in South America or anywhere else? And what have your ancestors done to break up stupid dogma, what I and mine have done is matter of public record and can be easily Googled, "Bucky"
I am Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo and I hide behind no pseudonym.

by PetetheProf (62 articles, 0 quicklinks, 394 comments) on Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 4:54:48 PM