Allow me to defend the Church - sort of.

I don't mean to downplay the impact of the anti-Semitism aspect of the Pius X Society’s recall to the bosom of the Church, but if Jews have a problem with this, so too I believe will many, many Catholics, especially those who actually read the Gospels. The concept of a militant Church shedding members by the millions may be okay with Pope Benedict but I am not sure the Christ who commanded his disciples to teach all nations would agree.

While the actions of many Christians might make it hard to believe, the essence of the Christian message boils down to just one word: Love. The mark of any Christian is his or her understanding that love is he foundation of all, not just their faith but existence itself. In the halcyon days of John XXIII, we used to sing a song called: "You will know we are Christians by our love." But singing it isn't enough, it must be lived.

In the jungles of Central America, many Catholics, including one Archbishop, several Jesuit priests and their house keepers, nuns and lay workers followed love to a martyr's grave. But because in their work they sometimes brushed shoulders with Marxists, their martyrdom is an embarrassment to the Vatican and unrecognized.

Instead, we find organizations founded by fascists like Opus Dei and the Pius X Society being clasped to the Pope's bosom.

I happen to be a vanishing relic of American demographics: a second generation German-American all four of whose grandparents emigrated to the US before the turn of the last century. Unlike Pope Benedict, the members of my family did not serve in the Wehrmacht and one of my cousins in buried in the American Cemetery perched on the bluff above Utah Beach. (See http://www.johnklotz.com/billy.htm)One would think a Pope who served, albeit briefly, in the Wehrmacht, might be just a little bit more sensitive to his actions when it comes to fascist anti-Semites.

God is love, John the Evangelist wrote. In the words and work of the Pius X Society, I see no love and no God. I once remarked to a priest-friend, that I sometimes though that the greatest of all Saint since the time of the Apostles was St. Francis. He replied that "Some of us think he was the only one." Benedict should turn his steps to St, Francis and away from the religious totalitarians.

But I remain a Catholic, it’s just the Roman part that is getting difficult.

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com

One more comment before we bash Catholics for the act of Pope Benedict.

There have been many comments about Saint in waiting Pius XII actions in the thirties in reaching a compromise with the Nazis. But if there is any more dramatic point that political expediency of the any Pope may not reflect the "Catholic" view, the simple fact is that of all the religious and demographic groups in Germany (excepting Marxists and Socialists) the most opposed to the Nazi's were the Catholics, Pius XII be damned.

There was a report some years ago about righteous Gentiles (I believe it was Poland) who hid Jewish children during the Holocaust. If discovered by the Nazi's, the parents were forced to watch while their own children were hanged, and then their posterity destroyed, they were hanged.

One woman, who was a little girl at the time, was interviewed by CBS, "I asked my mother, 'Why are we doing this?' She replied "Because it's the Catholic thing to do.""

In so many ways, large numbers of Catholics do get the message. The scandal is that it is often despite of, not because of, the Vatican.

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com

First, when I used the phrase "saint in waiting" in describing Pius XII, I thought it would be shorthand for the fact that he had not been canonized although there is a Vatican lobby acting on his behalf.

Second, I am fully in accord with the fact that not all of the Nazi's victims were Jews. However, the Holocaust was a deliberate effort to obliterate Jews from history by the simple expedient of murdering them all. On a smaller scale, the same was attempted for Gypsies.

I make not an apologist for Israeli actions including the WAR CRIME of using phosphorous ordi9nance. My impression was that the American Army had abandoned phosphorous ordinance some time ago. Certainly, indiscriminate use of this chemical weapon is despicable, whether or not your grandparents died in the Holocaust.

Now I am sure that some will brand me an anti-Semite for criticizing Israeli policy. The irony is that by way of marriage, by children have a right of return to Israel by their mother and a right to German citizenship by reason of their father's grandparents. Their strong disposition is to remain what they are, and what their parents are, Americans.

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com