Jostling for Rank in the Idiot Files
I have already conferred on Pope Benedict and the entire Vatican a membership in the Idiot Alert Files. They, apparently, are not satisfied with being merely a part of the rank and file. They want the deluxe package, the OMG how-fucking-stupid-can-you-be star membership. Who am I to argue?
It seems the Vatican issued a statement on May 9th of this year to inform the faithful that Hitler's Pope has been moved one step closer to sainthood. Vatican spokesman Reverend Ciro Benedettini said a panel of brain-dead bishops and cardinals at the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints has approved a declaration on the virtues of Pius XII. All that is needed is for Pope Benny to sign on the dotted line and Hitler's Pontiff will have taken a major step toward beatification.
I do love my dictionary and so when I encountered this news, the first step I took (well, the first one after prolonged snorting in major disbelief) was to open my omnipresent lexicon. I found there that beatification is defined as meaning: the official act of a Pope whereby a deceased person is declared to be blessedly happy and worthy of public religious veneration. I can well imagine Pius XII is more than just blessedly happy. If there is an afterlife, he must be spending eternity giggling over the fact that while millions died, he managed to maintain the opulence of his lifestyle, uninterrupted by the horrors of the Holocaust happening on his doorstep.
Under German occupation, Nazi officials deported approximately 8,000 Jews from Italy to Auschwitz-Birkenau and other Nazi camps. The vast majority of them were murdered. From Rome itself, 1,800 Jews were taken by the Nazis to die at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Italian people objected to the deportation of their paesani and Italian police did not participate in the roundups of the Jews. There were those, in stark contrast to the Pope, who imperilled their own life to safeguard the harried Jewish population, like Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty and others of his brave and conscientious ilk.
From the Pope himself, however, situated in the Vatican in the very heart of Rome, came only a thundering silence. Not once did he publicly decry the German "final solution". Not once did he publicly suggest that Hitler was a monster, not a man. Of course, Hitler's Germany did recognize the Vatican as having the status of a neutral sovereign state. That takes us back to Pius spending eternity in his blessedly happy state. He never had to deprive himself of even one sumptuously served meal in order to have food to keep a loved one from starvation. He never had to trade in even one of his gem-encrusted robes in order to bribe an SS guard to spare a loved one's life for one more day. Following in the footsteps of Pius XII would guarantee we all turned a blind eye to man's inhumanity to man, but at least we could do so in appropriately decorated churches headed up by appropriately uncaring prelates. Truly, this is a man worthy of public religious veneration; a role model indeed.
If the Vatican canonizes this man, it will only serve to underline their total refusal to move out of the Dark Ages; their total refusal to acknowledge their mandate to serve the common members of their saviour's flock instead of fawning over the power-brokers of their corrupt and failing institution. The Idiot Files actually has no star-standing available for them. Once you're a member here, it's rank-and-file standing only.
The brain-dead have no need of hierarchy.
It seems the Vatican issued a statement on May 9th of this year to inform the faithful that Hitler's Pope has been moved one step closer to sainthood. Vatican spokesman Reverend Ciro Benedettini said a panel of brain-dead bishops and cardinals at the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints has approved a declaration on the virtues of Pius XII. All that is needed is for Pope Benny to sign on the dotted line and Hitler's Pontiff will have taken a major step toward beatification.
I do love my dictionary and so when I encountered this news, the first step I took (well, the first one after prolonged snorting in major disbelief) was to open my omnipresent lexicon. I found there that beatification is defined as meaning: the official act of a Pope whereby a deceased person is declared to be blessedly happy and worthy of public religious veneration. I can well imagine Pius XII is more than just blessedly happy. If there is an afterlife, he must be spending eternity giggling over the fact that while millions died, he managed to maintain the opulence of his lifestyle, uninterrupted by the horrors of the Holocaust happening on his doorstep.
Under German occupation, Nazi officials deported approximately 8,000 Jews from Italy to Auschwitz-Birkenau and other Nazi camps. The vast majority of them were murdered. From Rome itself, 1,800 Jews were taken by the Nazis to die at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Italian people objected to the deportation of their paesani and Italian police did not participate in the roundups of the Jews. There were those, in stark contrast to the Pope, who imperilled their own life to safeguard the harried Jewish population, like Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty and others of his brave and conscientious ilk.
From the Pope himself, however, situated in the Vatican in the very heart of Rome, came only a thundering silence. Not once did he publicly decry the German "final solution". Not once did he publicly suggest that Hitler was a monster, not a man. Of course, Hitler's Germany did recognize the Vatican as having the status of a neutral sovereign state. That takes us back to Pius spending eternity in his blessedly happy state. He never had to deprive himself of even one sumptuously served meal in order to have food to keep a loved one from starvation. He never had to trade in even one of his gem-encrusted robes in order to bribe an SS guard to spare a loved one's life for one more day. Following in the footsteps of Pius XII would guarantee we all turned a blind eye to man's inhumanity to man, but at least we could do so in appropriately decorated churches headed up by appropriately uncaring prelates. Truly, this is a man worthy of public religious veneration; a role model indeed.
If the Vatican canonizes this man, it will only serve to underline their total refusal to move out of the Dark Ages; their total refusal to acknowledge their mandate to serve the common members of their saviour's flock instead of fawning over the power-brokers of their corrupt and failing institution. The Idiot Files actually has no star-standing available for them. Once you're a member here, it's rank-and-file standing only.
The brain-dead have no need of hierarchy.
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