George W. Bush is trying to dismantle the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Roman Catholic Church has selected a new pope who may try to dismantle the legacy of Pope John XXIII.
He criticised the introduction of the non-Latin Mass as a “tragic breach” and in the 1980s dubbed homosexuality an “intrinsic moral evil” and said rock music could be a “vehicle of anti-religion”.
In 1981, Cardinal Ratzinger was appointed Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) – an organisation once known as the Inquisition – and has since stamped his rigorous theological conservatism on the Church.
It is claimed that he saw his mission as defending Catholic teaching following liberal moves after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
He had public disagreements with moderate German Cardinal Walter Kaspe and has also been accused of prompting decrees from Rome barring Catholic priests from counselling pregnant teenagers about choices available to them.
Others claim he blocked German Catholics from sharing communion with Lutherans at a joint gathering in 2003.
Latin was not the language of Jesus, but of the Caesars. Pope John XXIII’s “tragic breach” was to reach out to ordinary people. While Karel Wojtyla (John Paul II) fought the Nazis occupying his native Poland during World War II, Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) was a member of the Hitler Youth. Ah, progress!
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