The title of the head of the Roman Catholic Church is “pontiff”, which means, basically “bridge-builder” (in Latin: pontifex; I gather it’s thought by some that the Roman priests would bless new bridges, and the bishop of Rome inherited the term when ROme was Christianised).
Evidence that the title is undeserved comes from his head of state (really? A few square kilometres of Rome is a state?) visit to the UK, in which he declares that the Nazis, who appealed to God and Christianity (and in particular Catholicism) at every opportunity, were the “sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century”. Bullshit. They were, as the Telegraph’s blogger Tom Chivers notes, the outcome of the individuals and society of the day, and to call them an atheist movement is worse than calling them a Christian movement, because there is plenty of evidence that most Nazis were Christian. Basically, it’s historical revisionism.
That’s not building bridges. That’s building ghettoes. A new title is due to be added to the Pope’s already overblown list. It should come after “protector of pedophiles”.
Larry wonders if accommodationists will criticise the Pope for this. Here’s a criticism. I suspect he won’t think it’s enough.
What everyone else said. All this from a person whoseChurch – not atheism – colluded with te Nazi’s in the Final Solution. And I read this on Yom Kippur, noch. Truly, there are no words.
I read a bit in the paper today by Dominic Lawson who is an athiest. He suggested the pope had got the better in this argument. He cited Micheal Burlieghs work on the third reich citing Hitler
“The was will be over one day. I shall then consider that my life’s final task will be to solve the religious problem…The organised lie must be smashed”
Hitler’s views were shaped by distorting a range of subjects to fit his own prejudices.
I think both sides come out as losers. Both are playing the same old political game with history, distorting it and shaping it to make a contemporary point.
I am more disapointed with my own team as I expect far higher standards.
We take religion to task for distorting and presenting a range of false beleifs about the world around us but in the interests of attempting to win an argument do exactly the same thing with history. Or cobble together an ill thought out idea like the meme and present it as if it’s a scientific fact.
Its no better than claiming the earth is 6000 years old.
Its seriously sad. I dont wish to see one type of bullshit replaced by another. I expect something more.
That should read “The war will be over……”
The warning from history the Nazis present is not the danger of what other people we don’t like can become, but what we can become. They were a product of our European culture and society and attitudes that existed within it not apart from it.