Benedict’s Resignation: Time to Move From Religious to Spirituality
Matthew Fox, San Francisco
Volume 27 Issue 1, 2 & 3 | Posted: March 6, 2013
In many regards my goodbye salute to Pope Benedict XVI is to be found in my book, The Pope’s War: How Ratzingers Crusade Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved where I put the past 42 years of the papacy in perspective.
There I catalogue his unenvious track record of killing of theology and silencing of 105 theologians. History will remember Benedict for bringing back the Inquisition and emasculating the great Christ-like movement of Liberation Theology and for ignoring for decades the facts of priestly pedophilia. After all the buck stopped at his desk and he was apparently too busy to address that horrible reality since he was so preoccupied with playing the 20th century Torquemada and hounding theologians smarter, more generous, more creative and more brilliant than himself in order to shut them up.
In many regards my goodbye salute to Pope Benedict XVI is to be found in my book, The Pope’s War: How Ratzingers Crusade Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved where I put the past 42 years of the papacy in perspective.
There I catalogue his unenvious track record of killing of theology and silencing of 105 theologians. History will remember Benedict for bringing back the Inquisition and emasculating the great Christ-like movement of Liberation Theology and for ignoring for decades the facts of priestly pedophilia. After all the buck stopped at his desk and he was apparently too busy to address that horrible reality since he was so preoccupied with playing the 20th century Torquemada and hounding theologians smarter, more generous, more creative and more brilliant than himself in order to shut them up.
The lack of conscience in the Yes men that he and JP II appointed to positions of decision making means that no Catholic should be holding their breath expecting the Holy Spirit to elect a decent leader. The church as we know it is finished and that is a blessing in itself. The Holy Spirit expects us to move beyond Imperial Religion to the essence of Jesus teachings: Do it to the least and you do it to me.
People are speculating whether the HBO documentary that finally laid out the horrors of Ratzinger’s neglect around priestly pedophilia is what finally did him in.
One would hope so. That plus the sordid news emanating from the Los Angeles diocese where he deliberately chose an Opus Dei bishop to head that largest diocese in the world thus revealing for all to see where his ecclesial philosophy truly lies: In a secret and fascist organization that holds power not only in the church but in great swaths of the American media, the Supreme Court and more today.
Time to move from religion to spirituality.
Matthew Fox, San Francisco