"A Cultic, Fundamentalist Hue"

The following is excerpted from Joseph O’Leary’s always informative blogsite. As you’ll see, it’s not only a well-articulated assessment of the current (and increasingly dire) state of the Roman Catholic Church, but a great compilation of links to various articles and sites that offer differing perspectives on this current state. As could be expected, much of the discussion focuses on the Vatican’s rehabilitation of the six formerly excommunicated bishops of the Society of St. Pius X (pictured above) - including the Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson.

Liberal views such as these now seem more mainstream as people shrink back from the abyss that [the Holocaust-denying Society of Pope Pius X] Bishop Williamson’s utterances gave a glimpse of. The author notes that the Vatican is unwisely tolerant of cultic organizations that brainwash the young.

Similarly, the Interfaith Alliance warns that in turning back on Vatican II the Church is acquiring a cultic, fundamentalist hue.

Cultism is shown in Bishop Williamson’s thesis that the sufferings of France in WWI and WWII are God’s punishment for the 1905 Law of Separation of Church and State. The Pope has made Bishop of Linz a man who holds that the Katrina catastrophe was divine punishment for US toleration of abortion and homosexuality. We are deep into the cultic twilight zone.

Neocaths have found a new vocation as they fall back on the “Pope as victim” topos or the idea that the Pope is misled by the evil Curia. Sandro Magister has taken this line, taken up by the plaintive Raffaella.

. . . Meanwhile. the Pope’s brother Georg has upbraided Chancellor Merkel for her schoolmistressy presumption in criticizing the Pope. Apologists are other to point out that the Pope could not have known of the negationist interview.

The FAZ newspaper says that Ratzinger arouses hostility not because he is aggressive but because he is a happy Catholic. In fact Ratzinger has a “Bavarian pugnacity” as his Doctorvater noted, and he has in addition a passive-aggressive disposition played in the key of sweet soft-spokenness. Watch that video again.

Rocco Buttiglione thinks the brouhaha will lead to more clarity in the relations between Catholics and Jews (just as some claim the Regensburg gaffe led to Muslim-Catholic dialogue).

It is true that reactions to papal gaffes about Islam, scientists, gays, etc., are exaggerated and that the media acerbate the problem. Nonetheless, the pattern of reaction has been lit up clearly though crudely, and this is bringing both the Church and the world to a moment of conscientization that will form the judgment of history on the three decades of Vatican regression from Vatican II.

Franco Garelli asks why the Vatican cannot dialogue with the mass of Catholics even as it expends infinite energy on the ungrateful Lefebvrites.

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
“The Real Battle”
Benedict’s Understanding of the Church

Recommended Off-site Links:
Cults of Personality - Colleen Kochivar-Baker (Enlightened Catholicism, February 6, 2009).
The Pope’s Denial Problem - Christopher Hitchens (Newsweek, February 9, 2009).