Good Pope, Bad Pope

I liked the pope, but I also liked the documentary on him on PBS the other night that was very critical of his actions during his papacy, especially his feelings toward women and women's rights.

Let's call a spade a spade, the pope was not perfect. He was a hard-ass when it came to liberation theology, insisting that the cardinals of Latin America should align themselves with the corrupt governments in order to maintain peace, thereby setting the stage for the poor to stay poorer and the corruption to continue, rather than counseling the Latin clergy on how to deal with the Socialist uprising and civil unrest stirring in the Central American jungles. Or help the poor. When he visited El Salvador and people pleaded for him to restore peace, he screamed at them. The pope screamed at poor people.

He ordered visitations to the Vatican by Hispanic Monsignors, to explain themselves and why they refused to kowtow to the Third World powers that be. They were sequestered for days before being granted an audience with the pope, and when they showed the pope pictures upon pictures of murdered priests, murdered nuns, murdered children - all murdered by the same corrupt government that the pope was extolling - the pope still refused to support the cardinals disalignment with the regime. Monsignor Moreno left the Vatican in tears. A month later he was assasinated by government henchmen while saying mass. He died on the altar. During his outdoor funeral, the same henchmen fired shots into the crowd, killing women and children. It was only then that the pope issued a statement denouncing the El Salvadorian government. I mean, come on, pope!

Then there was his strict stance on women serving in the clergy. It didn't matter to him how called by God a woman felt herself to be, or how good a priest she would have been, he informed women, time after time, that they were "constituently inelgible by gender" to enter the clergy. Now, one would think that this would not be a big deal - just become a nun, girl! - but nuns aren't allowed to perform mass, or Holy Sacraments, which is what these women wanted to do. And the only reason the pope was so adamant about women not being ordained was because no women were ordained during the time of Jesus - 2,000 years ago.

And let's not forget his heartwarming position on birth control, or a woman's right to choose. Does it strike anyone else as bizarre that the pope and the church were so against a woman's ability to choose, but in the Bible Mary MAKES THE CHOICE to give birth to the Baby Jesus? She could have as easily said no. (Where would the church be then? Would God have chosen someone else? Could we have had The Virgin Ethel? Hmmmm...) Either way, a choice was made - but God forbid that tradition stick! No, no, let's make sure that overpopulation remains a problem, because it's more people for us to control! It seems that's the church's idea of birth control - you give birth and we control. And it just strikes me as hilarious that the pope is considered the reigning authority on this matter, given all of his experience as a woman and firsthand knowledge of what it's like to feel that pang of fear when your period is late. Ridiculous....

This is not to say that the pope was a bad person by any means! I mean, the guy was pretty much single-handedly responsible for laying the groundwork for the Solidarity Movement in Communist Poland. He spoke to the Poles, who had been under Socialist rule for decades and basically denied any sense of individuality, like individuals. He found that part of themselves that they didn't even know they had, the freedom-craving part that was forced to lay dormant. He gave them their first taste of that. So I'm not saying he was a horrible human being, just that he's not the Perfect P. Perfectstein everyone's making him out to be.

Well, anyway, I may be destined for a public stoning after writing this, but I had to get these thoughts off my chest. But it just sounds skewed to me to hear people say "Oh, yes, the pope loved all people, he loved them so much!" Well, I'm sure he did, as long as they didn't disagree with anything he said...