may contain trace quantities of nuts

some of us actually do expect the spanish inquisition 4/20/2005

so. they’ve chosen themselves a pope, all those ridiculous old men who like to wear red. they did it behind closed doors, something i find ironic for a group that spends so much of its time forcing its way through other people’s closed doors and decreeing what is and is not to occur there. but if i start listing all the brilliant hypocrasies of the vatican, we’ll be here all day, really. so i’ll just focus on the one or two that really take the cake.

who have they chosen? they’ve chosen cardinal joseph ratzinger, someone the news outlets i’ve found have been falling all over themselves to describe as “an intellectual” and “a philosopher,” apparently because he taught at the university of tübingen. this is an interesting characterization, seeing as most of the shit he’s written has been simply tearing apart other religions for not making any sense, tearing up feminism for destroying the nuclear family and tearing up homosexuality for being a perversion. not exactly what i consider heavy intellectualism coming from a catholic cardinal. i’ve read him described from more than one source as “a controversial choice” because of his views on women and on homosexuality and on the church in general. this is all true. by all accounts he appears to be a complete cromag.

but, lets take a step back folks. lets take a larger look at the room. whats that thing in the middle of it? the huge thing with the trunk that no one is talking about? that would be the years he spent as a nazi, helping germany in its attempt to exterminate the jews, roma and homosexual men. yes, our pope joined up with the hitler jugend when he was 14 and stuck with it until the war ended in 1945. the spin is that he “deserted” the army in 1945 and was “taken capture” by the allies. yes. a very courageous stand to take, deserting after the war had been lost and surrendering to an army you know perfectly well is not going to execute you. but they tell us that it was his time as a nazi soldier that made him realize how important peace is.

to me, his views on women’s place in society and the moral worth of homosexuals seem to be uncomforatbly reminiscent of the opinions of WWII germany, so i’m dubious of how deep an effect the war really had on his moral compass (perhaps that’s unfair, i dont know; i have a hard time being fair when it comes to people who ever wore nazi uniforms, but i would think that seeing what irrational hate and fear of large groups of people can lead to would make one a much more accepting human being). what i find particularly nauseating, however, is that a man who once killed other human beings in military service to nazi germany sees fit to declare that women aren’t good enough for ordination. it would seem all the catholic nuns who were busy risking their lives to hide jewish children while he was off helping his country exterminate their parents are less suitable spiritual guides than he is, regardless of the fact that he lacked the moral courage and, let’s face it, spirit of god enough to resist. likewise, he would tell us that someone like sophie scholl, a girl who was executed for her nazi resistance activities that were largely informed by her faith in god, is similarly an unsuitable moral leader (note that i am in no way suggesting that women were the sole actors for good in that war; i only highlight specific women in this case as women as a group are being judged as unworthy to speak for god). yet he will now be able to literally pontificate on the sanctity of life, this man who fought in service of a group that western history has come to understand as the absolute antithesis of respect for the sanctity of life.

now, i understand that he was basically a kid during his years with the german army (he would have been all of 18 in 1945, i believe), and i’m certainly not intending to compare him to himmler or goebbels or any of the other party glitterati. i understand perfectly well how people in caught up in completely insanse situations can find themselves participating in insane things. however, i am suggesting that a man with such a dirty, dirty smear on his moral record should probably shut his fucking mouth when it comes to the judging the ecclesiastical suitability of other humans who were clearly and obviously being much more influenced by a spirit of god.

i suppose, bottom line, my question is this: if women aren’t fit to be moral and spiritual guides because of our ovaries, shouldn’t we at LEAST expect that god’s representative on earth NOT have ever been a nazi??