As most people are probably aware, Pope John Paul II has been busy lately with apologies for just about everything. Pretty noble of him, huh?
Well, maybe. Personally, I feel it's too little, too late. But did anyone catch the blatant smear in his apology for the transgressions against the Jews in WWII?
He referred to Nazism as a "pagan ideology."
Naturally, the pagan community is outraged, and justifiably so.
Now, while it is conceivable that the Pope was using "pagan" to mean "anything not Christian," as the word was used in ages past, it was terribly inconsiderate of him to do so. The word today has a much more specific connotation, one that refers to a number of earth-based religions. As such, it applies to Nazism not in the least.
Imagine if he'd referred to blacks as "niggers." The word was in common usage, once, and didn't hold the same stigma as it has in recent decades. But no one would think to use it casually today, as most people find it offensive.
JPII is guilty of the same sort of prejudiced slur with his comments about the Nazis.
And of course, he's wrong about that, too. Hitler was a devout Christian (and Catholic, at that) and would never have tolerated anything pagan in his military.
So was the Pope's reference to paganism just a poor choice of words? Or was it deliberately chosen, used in an effort to distance Hitler from the Church of Rome?
If I had to lay money on the bet, I'd choose the latter. I think the Pope deliberately worded his "apology" in such a way as to foist off a lot of guilt onto the scapegoats once again.
From where I sit, this "apology" only makes the Catholic Church dirtier.
Oh, and as for the Pope asking us to forgive the church for all their "mistakes"…?
Forget it.
