A controversy has erupted over the request by the Rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch, that Pope Benedict XVI take off his cross before a visit to the wall in May. Rabinovitch stated “My position is that it is not fitting to enter the Western Wall area with religious symbols, including a cross. I feel the same way about a Jew putting on a tallit and phylacteries and going into a church.”
Actually, asking someone to remove a cross is more like asking them remove yamaka in a church, which would be an outrageous demand. As someone raised as a Catholic, I would also never ask a Jewish person to remove a tallit or phylacteries.
In 2000, Pope John Paul II prayed at the Western Wall without removing his cross. Rabinovitch has made headlines in recent years by blocking clergy wearing crosses.
In November 2007, he blocked a group of Austrian bishops led by the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Schonborn, stating that “crosses are a symbol that hurt Jewish feelings.” That seems less of a view of religion than prejudice. I am married to a Jewish woman as is one of my brothers and they clearly do not view crosses in such a way. I would view a Jewish person praying in a church to be a sign of respect and interfaith connection.
It seems to me that the symbol of intolerance in this controversy is Rabbi Rabinovitz as when he barred access in May 2008 to a group of Irish prelates from both Catholic and Protestant churches. The Rabbi has converted a symbol of faith and tolerance into a place of exclusion and prejudice. I would be interested in hearing particularly from our Jewish bloggers as to whether Rabbi Rabinovitz’s views are shared by the mainstream of the Jewish community.
The politics of the wall has been marred in past years by attacks on Jewish women who seek to hold prayer sessions at the wall, here and here and here.
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Take a look the Papal States under Pius IX when he ruled central Italy until 1870. The Pope was the absolute temporal ruler, claiming direct political descent from the Caesars, on the basis of the Donation of Constantine, a proven forgery.
He ruled alone, hindered by no council, legislature, or judiciary. He was also the absolute civil, military and spiritual leader, and had himself proclaimed infallible in faith and morals by the first Vatican Council. He issued the Syllabus of Errors denouncing, among many other things, religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
He called the Jews of Rome “dogs,” saying there were too many in Rome, heard howling in the streets. One Jewish couple had their six-year old son kidnapped by the Pope’s agents in 1858, after a servant claimed to have baptized him secretly. Despite years of anguished protests, the Pope never relented in denying their basic human rights as parents, and had the child raised as a Catholic. He refused calls of Catholic heads of state like Emperor Franz Josef and Napoleon III to return the child to his parents.
Gregory, several additional observations:
1. Pope Benedict XVI’s condemnation of liberation theology is as ill-informed as his restoration of the Society of St. Pius. The persecution of the clergy in the aftermath of every revolution in South and Central America (as well as in Cuba) can be directly linked to the historical alignment of the Catholic hierarchy with the wealthy elite and its silence in the face of repeated and endemic repression of progressive voices in those countries. Liberation theology is nothing more than the application of the gospels to the problems of social justice. It is only threatening to those who view social justice as a code phrase for godless totalitarianism. We can pretty much thank the church for Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.
2. The incidence of homosexuality in the church did not accelerate following the Second Vatican Council. It is an unintended consequence of the law of celibacy, a matter of continuing debate and a rule which will eventually be abrogated, at least for diocesan clergy.
3. Homosexuality and pedophilia are not synonymous terms. Most people, including priests, who sexually abuse children are heterosexual. Pedophilia is a psychological illness. Again, this was a problem well known to the hierarchy for literally decades prior to its public acknowledgment, an acknowledgment which was neither voluntary nor honest.
4. The conversion of Emperor Constantine was a shrewd political decision made for the same reasons that the royal families of Europe have intermarried for centuries, to unite and strengthen an empire under siege. The only difference is that Constantine’s bride was the church.
5. It is well known that Pope Benedict was not a fan of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council because he believed that they threatened the preservation of the conservative orthodoxy he has embraced throughout his career. He is the prototypical German intellectual, brilliant but hidebound, well-intentioned but narrow in his focus, a master of doctrine but ignorant of the simple needs of the human spirit.
6. He has never been amenable to honest and open theological debate, preferring instead to work to suppress the ideas of men such as Hans Kung and Karl Rahner, two of the finest Catholic theologians of the 20th century.
I could go on, but suffice it to say that his pronouncements are part of a futile effort to restore a social and religious structure which men of more humility and less intellect (John XXIII comes to mind) have long since recognized as morally offensive and spiritually corrosive.
I have been reading your blog for two days. Way to go Greg! my schweeeetie pie!
Mike, I am agape that agapeteus will be drinkin’ the National Beer of *Texas*; by your actions, I think you just blasphemed a ‘god’
MikeS:
I hate to kvetch but could you add chile to the fries?
Agapetus,
One case of Lone Star coming up and a bucket of waffle cheese fries. All hail Agapetus…..A jealous and hungry God!
The blasphemer should have St. Vitus dance on his head.
rolfmao
BLESSED ARE THOSE THAT GIVE THANKS AND PRAYERS TO MY MEMORY.
MikeS:
I think I shall enjoy your offering more than Mespo72’s. Please kind Mespo72 do not take humberage, I mean no disrespect to your gracious offering and will consume that as well.
MikeS, do you think you could add a case of Lone Star to that fatted calf?
Gregory:
My son why cannot I take the body of a believer and use it to blog? I am rather board in heaven and from time to time I need to see how the world is getting along. Please dont get me wrong, Jesus is a great teacher but from time to time I need to see if the human race is following his teachings. I can say with some degree of certainty that you are not. You have exhibited the sins of pride and arrogance and you have threatened me.
If this doesnt stop I am going to have to get St. Hilarius involved. He knows Peter Abelard fairly well, they argue about the Eucharist all the time, and he [Peter] will certainly set you straight. Peter should never have left Héloïse and can sometimes be a real bear, so be expecting a nocturnal visit from the three of us.
Hey Just kidding, we all like to poke fun at Charles Dickens.
I tried to avoid this but the persistent disrespect of the all knowing, all seeing AGAPETUS (be it I or II)is an invitation to the hellfire of eternal damnation. How smug the blasphemer who believes he knows it all, yet sees so little. The Fates decree that hubris will bring him down and he shall be made to see the error of his ways too late for salvation.
I match Mespos offering with a fatted calf swathed in creamery butter and succulent baked garlic (non-Kosher but immaterial to great AGAPETUS). Rid us oh great and omnipotent AGAPETUS of this heathen in our midst who besmirched the Holy Words of the New York Times and worships the false God of Dogma.
A PRAYER TO AGAPETUS I & II
Oh Agapetus, I pray, please give gregory the gift of English comprehension that he might understand your magnificent words, and come to even understand my venial words so that when I say “…it was some of the bishops who made those absurd statements. Your Pope just ratified and validated their words…,” he understands that the Pope did not actually utter the sounds from his mouth but merely approved of them by his actions. Let him know the joy of discovering that doltishness is not a virtue, and that blind obedience to a myth usually transforms one into a lemming marching mindlessly to the sea. Reveal to gregory that even though we commiserate with his stupidity, there will always be a part of us that is thankful to him for the wild-eyed laughter he brings to our soul simply by knowing that we are not him. Take him to your bosom, so that we might enjoy his prolonged absence from we miserable skeptics here on earth. In Agapetus’ name we pray. Amen.
I would think twice about masquerading on this blog as someone who has the exclusive answers on salvation and what God wants or needs. That’s 1) arrogance and 2) impossible by definition. Let’s not forget those Seven Deadly Sins since the RCC is so big on them. Pride is a big one on that Hit Parade. In fact, pride and wrath – which you have also just displayed – are the two most closely associated with the Morningstar. Pride in one’s religious club house of choice is still pride. Compounding that you’ve displayed none of the virtues except perhaps vigilance.
But you keep on spewing RCC propaganda talking points.
I’m greatly entertained by the mauling you’re getting at the hands of the heathens and dead Popes.
mespo77/AgapetusI ?-What you are doing borders on sacrilege, you are mocking this Pope’s memory and mocking the Church.
Gregory:
that sounds like a threat to me. I may only be using a human form but I certainly dont want my “host” to come to any physical harm for what I have done.
How do you know I am masquerading? It certainly is possible that I have taken human form by borrowing the body of a believer. Ask me a question that only Agapetus would know and we shall see whom is masquerading. There can be only one.
My son you need to rest, you have done well.
ps I am working on MikeA to bring him back into the fold.
I would think twice before masquerading on this blog as Pope Agapetus. Remember, not all sins in this world go unpunished until we die.
Agapetus 1. You are as disordered in your thinking and argument as your fellow-bloggers, possibly moreso. By the holy word I presume “you” must be referring to the New York Times, which is probably all you read.
Gregory:
Must I start excommunication? Mespo72 has offered a spring lamb medium rare with a nice red wine.
What have you offered to my memory, except turning the ones you seek to convert. You are being used by Satan himself to keep these good people from the Holy Word.
I say unto thee go and sin no more.
If I have to intervene again I and the other cardinals shall have to censure you.
Mespo77. At least you are consistently elusive and sly. The article never stated that Pope Benedict the XVI made the statements that you alleged, concerning the 9-11 attacks. Does your eagerness to deceive know any bounds?
And also with you…
Mespo77 it might serve you well to spend more time reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and less time reading Pravda West, a.k.a, the New York Times.
gregory:
Perhaps you need flash cards. See paragraph 5 of the article.