Alternet: Pope Benedict: The First Year by Matthias Beier (originally in Tikkun). A reasonable overview of the current pope and some of his Eurocentric tendancies. (The more I think about it, "Eurocentric" is just the right term to use. "Nazi" is inflamatory and inaccurate. "Islamophobe" is to blunt and doesn't cover everything. But "Eurocentric" really does cover a wide range of his implicit and explicit actions.)
4 comments:
definitely. That speech he gave clearly indicates that.
sure... i get the impression that with this pope it is much more extreme. John Paul II was much more cosmopolitan. He has travelled more than any pope, he went to Cuba, other places in Latin America, to Asia, etc.
Benedict (the name of the patron saint of Europe by the way) seems like he is explicitly much more serious about evangelizing Europe. (In spite of the fact that the center of mass of the church has been slowly but surely drifting to the south.
I would actually cut him some slack in terms of the nazi stuff.. he was in the hitler youth when it became mandatory. he joined the priesthood (and avoided military service) until he was drafted. he eventually deserted.
That's an excellent article -- thanks for the link.
Benedict's Eurocentrism runs very deep in his theology, especially when you look at the more "practical" texts that deal with how the church now should be acting in the world. However, he has taken some surprising turns during this first year of his pontificate that I just can't fathom. As a progressive, I saw some positive things in his works that just haven't manifested in his actions as Pope...
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