Ponizej cytuje inne spojrzenie na problem. Ciekawe o tyle, ze autor chyba
wskazuje wyraznie na powody istnienia tej wyjatkowo napastliwej krytyki
kosciola.
Andrzej
October 31, 1999
Finding something you can believe in
By R. CORT KIRKWOOD-- Ottawa Sun
The book is called Hitler's Pope, and if know anything about World War II
and the Vatican, you know the premise without even reading it. It's yet
another arraignment of Pope Pius XII for not doing enough to stop the
Holocaust during World War II, with one small codicil.
It says he was complicit in the Holocaust because he helped Hitler to power.
The upshot of the book, according to the reviews, is that it proves what
everyone started saying about Pope Pius XII after a scurrilous play called
The Deputy appeared in the early 1960s. I'm citing a review here because I
have no intention, at least for now, of reading this calumny, if only
because the song has been replayed too many times: Christians in general and
Catholics in particular are anti-Semites who, if not responsible for,
certainly abetted, the murder of 6 million Jews. Goebbels himself had a name
for such slander: The Big Lie.
Yet whatever the book's specifics, its publication and the answer to it does
say something about Catholics.
They can't, or won't, defend their faith. The book should occasion rioting,
but Catholics don't seem to care. It landed in the bookstores with little or
no comment from anyone but an obscure French Jesuit, an expert on the
subject, who has debunked it.
This complete abdication of the duty to defend the faith, Defender of the
Faith once being a title a Catholic was proud to have earned, is quite the
dispiriting development. But it is no surprise to those who have witnessed
the steady decline of allegiance to the Church.
Those who can't defend their faith are defenseless for a reason. Having been
raised in the post Vatican II Church, which ushered in the tragic demise of
Catholic education, they don't know what they would be defending or why they
would be defending it. For them, being Catholic is pretty much like being
any other kind of Christian with a little more pomp and ceremony thrown in.
That's one reason, for instance, we see so many polls telling us "most
Catholics disagree" with the Church's teaching on artificial contraception.
It's a safe bet to say most of those "dissenting Catholics" don't know what
Church teaching is or the theology and philosophy behind it. You can't
explain or dissent from something if you don't know what it is. But neither
can you offer a spirited defence. So they listen when society tells them the
Church is wrong.
In sum, many Catholics are illiterates when its comes to their own faith. As
well, because the Church has abandoned its traditions, it can no longer
inspire traditional loyalty.
One need only look, to cite another example, at the number of priests and
nuns who refuse to wear clerical garb. Imagine what would happen if the
armed forces permitted its members to wear civilian duds. Morale, good order
and discipline would disintegrate.
Many young men would not want to join. The spiffy dress blues of the U.S.
Marine Corps have persuaded many a young man to enlist. But these problems
are with the Church itself. The other is those who won't defend the faith no
matter how much they know about it. They are the disloyal.
They may have adopted the prevailing view that the Church teachings on
anything from artificial contraception to the ordination of women is
outdated, and believe the Church needs to get "relevant" and more
"inclusive." Or they may believe, as good pluralists do these days, they
must tolerate any abuse no matter how outrageous it is. Both groups, the
illiterate and disloyal, have been spoon-fed the nonsense they must abide
any indignity because of the "right to free speech" and a misreading of the
scriptural admonition to "turn the other cheek." But free speech doesn't
give anyone the right to scandalize others, and the biblical injunction
doesn't mean permitting a public lie or lies to go unanswered.
Indeed, Christians are called upon to correct lies, not to overlook them.
Unhappily, Catholics do overlook them as if nothing had happened. We've come
a long way from the Crusades, when Christians laid down their lives for the
Cross.
As for Hitler's Pope, I don't believe he existed.
