A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics

The hatred of Pope Benedict XVI July 20, 2010

Here in the US, we have been exposed to a fair amount of Pope bashing of late, especially from what Fr. Zuhlsdorf calls Hell’s Bible, the New York Times.   Although some may find it hard to believe, the Pope fares far worse in post-Christian Britain.  Once called Mary’s Dowry, Britain has completed its exodus from the Faith, traveling through the way station of protestantism and finally up as a half-pagan half-Muslim disaster.  And no where is hatred of the Pope more intense.  From a new blog, some comments on the bashing of the Pope in Britain, ahead of his September visit to that island:

During my researches to create this website I have surfed a number of newspaper, secularist and gay websites to get a sense of the level of hostility out there towards Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church. If you exclude the usual trolls who inhabit the web, many, many people are thinking and saying hateful things about Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church.

Peter Tatchel’s group, Protest the Pope, portrays the Holy Father as an international criminal involved in the deaths of millions due to his upholding the Church’s opposition to condoms, and, among other things, they imply he’s a Nazis sympathiser because of his removal of the canonical penalty of excommunication from Bishop Williamson and his declaration of Pope Pius XII as Venerable.

They are not interested in the fact that the Catholic Church, under the direction of Pope Benedict, provides 25 % of the healthcare worldwide for people suffering from HIV/AIDS, Catholic or non Catholic alike. They’re not interested in the fact that Pope Benedict condemned in no uncertain terms any clerics’ denial of the Holocaust. They’re not interested in the growing evidence from Jewish and Catholics groups that the Venerable Pope Pius XII was responsible, with others, for saving 100,000’s of Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

(I’ll be examining all the accusations that Protest the Pope make against the Holy Father in the section ‘Benedict XVI’).

In my opinion groups like Protest the Pope use exaggeration, the partisan presentation of half-truths and selective quotations for one purpose – to destroy the reputation of Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church in the minds of their readers.

Quite.  If one ever has the misfortune to read the comments following an article in the press discussing some item from the Church, inevitably a very negative item (unless it’s about those very brave women just trying to be fully in the Church as priestesseses), you will find very quickly just how deeply and strongly a very ugly, hate filled anti-Catholicism runs in our culture.   As the trend towards secularism and evangelical atheism spreads, this vengeful spewing of any and all opinions against the Church will only increase, and the favorite whipping boy is the Pope.  Due to his intellect, his dedication to Tradition and spreading the Truth of Christ unapologetically to an increasingly hostile culture, the Pope has become the favorite target of the press and numerous anonymous commenters who have nothing but hate and jeaolousy in their hearts for him and his office.  His trip to England could be a fiasco – many in the ‘Magic Circle’ of English bishops are in virtual revolt over the provisions of the Ordinariate, and have botched the planning for his trip very badly.  Logistics aside, there are increasing signs of widespread protests against the Pope’s visit, with potentially even violence being planned by Muslims in Birmingham, as the implacably hostile press continues to whip up increasing vitriol against the Pope and the Church in general.   If violence breaks out, the press with their calumny will bear a great responsibility.  And a very kindly, gentle, scholarly man will have been treated to an incredibly shameful display of broken Europe.

Would you, in your charity, say a prayer for the Pope and his intentions, for his pontificate, for the Church’s mission of evangelization, and for the conversion of the world, especially poor, sick, twisted Britain?  There is even a prayer for the conversion of England, which I offer below:

Jesus, Good Shepherd, look down with favor on the English nation.  Converted to You by the labors of St. Augustine and his companions, it was for many centuries rich in fruits of faith and sanctity.  So devoted was it to Your holy and immaculate Mother that it was known throughout Christendom as the Dowry of Mary.  While being cut off from You in cruel fashion, hundreds of its people willingly shed their blood in testimony of their loyalty to You and Your Church.  Loving Shepherd of souls, recall this once great nation again to the unity of Your Church, and grant peace of soul to those now separated from Your fold.  Amen. 

It greatly pains me, as someone with some Anglophile tendencies, to see Britain sink into a paganistic morass, overrun by a hostile religion whose “moral ascendency” is so pitiously ceded by the Church of England.  I pray that Britain will return to the active practice of the Faith, and that its cultural elites will cease their headlong narcissistic plunge into the abyss of death.  It is amazing how far a nation, a proud culture, can plunge in one short century.  ‘There will always be an England.”  Perhaps.  But it may be filled with mosques and madrassas, with Muhammadism taught from the pulpit of Oxford.