the
pope has resigned
In
the media’s tsunami of papal coverage, I think more about the
Catholic church. True, there are priests who are men of genuine
compassion and remarkable altruism, more dedicated to humanity
than to any dogma or institution. While I shouldn’t have
anything against people like them, I have quite a lot against the
institution they belong. The priesthood of the church had set
themselves up as a special class of men who are the only messen-
gers between God and ordinary men and women and they used
this power with fearsome effect. The teachings of Jesus have
nothing to do with the arrogant roleplay of this hierarchy.
The
Roman Catholic Church is a worldwide organization with enormous
financial resources, with a network of charities and agencies that
provide crucial help to the downtrodden, and with parishes in
which the prayerful nurture their relationship with God. And the
pope is its CEO, ultimately responsible for where the money flows
and for the placement and policing of its staff. The church is a
corporation and like all corporations, it's goal is to thrive and
prosper. However, the church does not sell a tangible product,
rather it sells a particular life philosophy, namely eternal
happiness in heaven. In the alternative, it threatens hell to
those who do not conform, who do not pay dues to it and accept
it's authority without question. The hook has worked for two
thousand years, and has made the church the greatest corporation
in the history of the world. It is obviously a mafia-type orga-
nization: there is the same rigid hierarchy, the demand for
unquestioning obedience, the code of silence and the secrecy in
its finances.
Well,
nowadays most Catholics don’t feel any particular debt or duty
to the self-appointed caretakers of their church. They don’t
feel bound by the pope’s interpretation of doctrine or moral
commands. And many regard him and other Vatican officials as a
aristocratic family of dubious relevance - these officials have
often shown greater concern for the church’s establish- ment than
for the needs, and wounds, of the people in the congregation. |
When
it comes to divorce, premarital sex, birth control, abor-tion and
more, Catholics routinely break with the church’s edicts. To get
back to the subject, the pope has resigned. It’s time for
Catholics, all of them, to do the same. Those who prefer a
religious world view have on disposition quite a few varieties of
religious thought of non-mafia-type. |