The Catholic church seems to be always in contradiction with the political preferences of its adepts.
The Vatican: Always Taking Extremist Political Positions.
… but is always allied with those in power.
There are two fundamental reasons why I feel unable to follow the mandates of the Catholic church.
The first one, has to do with the frequent cases of pedophilia among ordained priests, and to me even more important, the historic (at least until recently) complicit attitude of the Vatican towards often proved cases of pedophilia among its hirarchy, transfering its accused members to another location, or secretly establishing monetary imdemnity agreements, with strict ‘prohibitions to comment’ clauses included in contracts the victims have to sign to get access to the imdemnity, all in order to avoid scandal, allowing suspected pedophile members to escape the arm of the law, always with mild or no internal punishment, and often offering the culprits further opportunities to continue engaged in their unnatural and shameful practice.
The second reason I am often in disagreement with the practices and mandates of the Vatican, has to do with the marked history of the Catholic Church of always be on the side of those in power, irrespective of their political color, and the rightfullness (or lack of it) of their mandate.
You see, when I was a young boy I attended a Catholic school in Spain in 1961–1962, during the Dictator Franco’s mandate.
At the school, Confession all the first Thursdays of each month, and Communion every first Friday were mandatory (freedom of religion?. In Franco’s Spain such thing didn’t exist).
Every classroom had a big crucifix hung in the wall, prominently in front of us, and at its side a photograph of a young Franco in military uniform, and a sign that read : “Spain’s leader by God’s grace”.
In order to confess our sins, we went in line of two to a nearby church, distant only about 100 meters from the school. There an enraged priest dressed all in black, perched on the pulpit, put fear in our young minds, stigmatizing us as sinners, we “who wouldn’t reach Redemption unless we confessed all of our sins”, he said.
Naturally enough, the first Thursday of every month when we had Confession, the students that didn’t have any sins to confess just made them up; anything and everything so long as to confess, therefore being able to have Communion the following day, and thus reach eternal life.
But, please, excuse my diggression. The point I tried to make is that in Spain at the time, there was a strong association between the despotic Administration of Dictator Franco and the Vatican.
A similar type of association was observed during the populist Peron days, and during the mandate of the also populist Isabel Peron in Argentina, and also between the authoritative Dictatorship of Pinochet in Chile, and the Vatican.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvFFSlaWcAAXAos.jpg
Also, during the period of WWII, the fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini (Il Duce, as he was widely known) came to power in Italy. Once again, the Catholic Church associated with the power, irrespective of its political color, or its treatment of the citizens:
“One of Il Duce’s closest and most important allies was Pope Pius XI. Mussolini formalized the relationship between Italy and the Vatican and restored Catholic education to Italian schools.” https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/when-mussolini-was-the-antichrist-market-mad-house-43927b6f32e3
Most presented cases are of rightists, despotic Goverments, or extreme populist ones (like both Peronist cases, in Argentina), closely supported by the Church.
In March 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a Jesuist priest, upon the resignation of Pope Benedicto XVI, was elected by the Conclave Cardenalicio, to sucede him as Pope, electing the name Francisco to be known thereafter.
Considered a progressive Pope, he nevertheless maintained traditional conservative Vatican’s positions in issues like abortion, clerical celibate, and the traditional criminal Church’s condemnation of the use of condoms by males in Africa, a continent plagued by AIDS; but at the same time he took extremist leftist positions by reestablishing Vatican’s relations with Dictatorial Cuba in 2015, and visiting the island that same year, but ignoring completely talking or meeting with Opposition leaders.
He also agreed to receive an untimely visit in Rome, without an appointment, of the Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro, accepting in that meeting the mediation of the Catholic Church in the talks (fake) of his shameful Government with the Oposition, after months of ignoring a similar petition by the Venezuelan Oposition leaders.
We can see then, with these examples, how the Catholic Church has often associated with those in power, irrespective as we said, of their political color, or the atrocities commited by them against the population.
I am unwilling to pardon the Church for these sins, and for other major, like those horrendous crimes pawned on people by the Inquisition, allegedly in the name of God; all sins committed historically by the Church, which caused Humanity a lot of damages, even though I recognize that a lot of good has also been delivered by the Catholic Church to humanity, which — contrary to my beliefs — has been obviously willing to pardon and even forget.
