As a former Roman Catholic, I will concede that I hold the Church hierarchy in utter contempt. Particularly, because of the manner in which the hierarchy, including Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI, aided, abetted and protected child/youth rapists. Every one of them involved ought to be behind bars for lengthy prison sentences. But Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI have much more dirt on their hands than just the sexual abuse scandal according to a new book by Matthew Fox, a former Catholic theologian who was ultimately driven from the Church by Benedict XVI, chief inquisitor of the Inquisition under John Paul II. The book is entitled The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade has Imperiled the Church and How it Can be Saved. Religion Dispatches has an interview with Fox (he doesn't hold his punches) and here are some highlights:*
The Catholic Church is ripe for another reformation. That’s the message theologian Matthew Fox sends in his new book . . . Fox is a former Catholic priest who was silenced by Pope Benedict XVI (who was then Cardinal Ratzinger) after a 12-year-long battle over his writings. The book points to scandals, from the best-known to the unfamiliar, that are rotting the church from the inside out. The current pope, Fox contends, has filled the Church with yes-men (all men, of course), and it's up to the Catholics in the pews to "push the restart button on Christianity."
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I take people through Ratzinger and how he came to be who he is, his childhood and adulthood. I also take people through who I call Ratzinger’s enemies—that would be liberation theology and Creation spirituality—and then Ratzinger’s allies, who are really scary. With allies like that you don’t need enemies—like Opus Dei, the Legion of Christ and Father (Marcial) Maciel,. .
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So there are three scandals here: one of them is pedophilia and its cover up. The second is the financial scandal, and the third, but by no means the least, is this intellectual/political destruction of theology.
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I think John Paul II was given a teflon papacy. He appointed Ratzinger as his chief inquisitor. He brought the Inquisition back. Everything Ratzinger did was supported by John Paul II, including his ugly documents about gays. He wrote two of them when he was chief inquisitor and one since he’s been pope and each one of them is uglier than the other, and meaner. This was signed off on by John Paul II.
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Also, John Paul II stood by while all this pedophile stuff was going on, including his close friend Father Maciel who he took on airplanes with him. That’s how close they were. He was utterly passive. . . . John Paul II did nothing. His hands are not nearly as clean as some people would like to imagine.
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John Paul II is the one who linked up with Opus Dei and Communion and Liberation, which is another far-far-right wing movement in Italy. They canonized (Josemaria) Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, and Escriva actually praised Hitler. He was a card-carrying fascist. Now, they’ve appointed all these Opus Dei and fascist bishops and cardinals all over Latin America to replace liberation theology. We should not be naïve about either of these popes.
*[T]he Vatican in its present state is beyond redemption. I think it is a very closed boy’s club. I have a section in the book on bullying. Ratzinger is a bully. I know him. He was in a 12-year battle with me before he won, I guess, and expelled me. Part of bullying, according to the studies that I’ve found, is that the bully likes a wolf pack. That wolf pack is the Curia (the central governing body of the Roman Catholic Church).
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The point I make in the book is that the laypeople have to take over the church, period. It’s not going to be reformed from the inside, or from the top down, at all. It’s rancid, and so, these people have to assert themselves and that’s the next step, for laypeople to realize it’s their church. They should only hire ministers who are willing to serve and not to be served, and that means starting over.
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