JESUIT CREDIBILITY

The Society of Jesus (Jesuit) is built around “Ignatian Spirituality.” This sounds very esoteric.

Then, we’re told that Ignatian Spirituality is based on writings by Ignatius of Loyola called “The Spiritual Exercises.”

While I’m sure that The Spiritual Exercises contain, like the Bible, many embarrassing passages that are “not to be taken literally,” two leap out at us.

These two passages go to the heart not of Jesuit Spirituality, but of “Jesuit Credibility.”

They show that Jesuit preaching isn’t about truth, it’s about eliciting desired behavior from the masses. Behavior desired by whom? By the Pope, of course.

In the Spiritual Exercises Ignatius tells his followers to lie and sandbag for the Pope.

LYING: I always thought the “black and white” quote was apocryphal, but here it is:

Thirteenth Rule. To be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it, believing that between Christ our Lord, the Bridegroom, and the Church, His Bride, there is the same Spirit which governs and directs us for the salvation of our souls. Because by the same Spirit and our Lord Who gave the ten Commandments, our holy Mother the Church is directed and governed.

So, Rule 13 states that the Pope can authorize lying, and that the Jesuits ought to repeat the Pope’s lies as if they were true.

SANDBAGGING: In Rules 14 and 15, Ignatius addresses the notion of sharing “too much truth” with the masses. Here the “saint” makes clear that the purpose of talking to the masses is to affect their behavior, NOT to share truth or insight. So, if there is some truth that might affect the masses behavior in a way undesirable to the Pope or to the Pope’s local political allies, don’t reveal this truth to the masses.

Fourteenth Rule. Although there is much truth in the assertion that no one can save himself without being predestined and without having faith and grace; we must be very cautious in the manner of speaking and communicating with others about all these things.

Fifteenth Rule. We ought not, by way of custom, to speak much of predestination; but if in some way and at some times one speaks, let him so speak that the common people may not come into any error, as sometimes happens, saying: Whether I have to be saved or condemned is already determined, and no other thing can now be, through my doing well or ill; and with this, growing lazy, they become negligent in the works which lead to the salvation and the spiritual profit of their souls.

It’s kind of embarrassing for the RCC, the whole issue of predestination. Paul was a firm believer. Makes for a nasty God, creating people bound for hell.

The only solution to the intellectual quagmire of predestination is to give up the notion of hell. God HAS predestined all of us—to heaven!

But no. The RCC has so little confidence in Christ’s message of love it just can’t give up its reliance on fear.

Conclusion:

Q. Based upon the “Spiritual Exercises,” can we believe anything a Jesuit says?

A. No.

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NAZI POPE: MORE MARTYRS, PLEASE

By beatifying hundreds of Francoist thugs, Pope Benedict once again reveals his Nazi roots. The fact that the thugs wore Roman collars makes them saints. Read the appalling CWN story here.

The Pope says all Christians should be ready to suffer martyrdom.

This sounds a little tinny coming from a Pope who once swore personal loyalty to Adolph Hitler. The Pope’s apologists say that Ratzinger wasn’t really a Nazi—he swore the Hitler oath in order to save his own skin.

Also, we should forget that Ratzinger’s Wehrmacht unit shot at Allied pilots over Germany. We are to supposed to believe that Ratzinger didn’t really mean to hurt anyone.

Ratzinger’s response to the most overwhelming evil of our times was to go along with it.

One thing’s for sure: if you’re martyred in your youth, you’ll never grow up to be Pope.

In recent months the Pope has urged European Christians to have more babies. This has so much the flavor of Lebensborn, it now seems completely fair to call Benedict “The Nazi Pope.”

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BROM PLAYS CATCH-UP

San Diego bishop Robert Brom has sent letters, including return addressed donation envelopes, to all parishioners asking for $25M to cover part of the diocese’ priest child sex abuse settlement. (Union-Tribune story here.)

Brom is an embarrassment. He refers to the $183M settlement which he and his diocese had long delayed with bad faith negotiations and fraudulent bankruptcy filings as “compassionate outreach.” Such spin is sin.

Only after the Federal judge threatened to throw out the Church’s bankruptcy claim, and faced with the possibility of Brom himself having to testify under oath, did the diocese agree to pay for the damages suffered by the children it helped to abuse.

Presumably some of the victims and their relatives are still parishioners in the diocese. Will they receive donation requests?

Brom’s request is short sighted.

Why ask for only $25m? That just takes care of the cases settled to date. What about the sex abuse being perpetrated by priests now and in the future?

Why not set up a revolving fund to settle priest sex abuse cases as they occur?

It would be easier for parishioners to finance priest sex abuse on a pay-as-you go basis.

Payouts made immediately would be lower than in cases covered up and allowed to fester. Actuaries could calculate the size of the fund required.

A million a year, two million, whatever it takes, the parishioners would know what it’s costing, and, they wouldn’t have to worry about being walloped by another $183M bombshell.

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GOD AND SANTA

Our received Catholic faith seems to follow a developmental path similar to that of our received belief in Santa Claus.

Not so bad, really. Adolescence is always rough, but overall it's a good thing.

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PRETENDING TO SIN

I have to admit that as an adolescent and young man I did sex things with girlfriends and actually had intercourse with a woman.

Yet I represent myself as a gay man.

This is not such a big deal. Probably lots of gay guys had sex with girls when they were young, some even get married to women before they decide to follow their lust.

But reverse it—say a guy who’s had some youthful sex experiences with other guys, yet represents himself as straight.

I suggest it’s easier for a gay guy to admit he’s had sex with women than for a straight guy to admit he’s has sex with other guys.

Anyway, it’s never good for a man to say, “I am not gay.”

US Senator Larry Craig keeps saying it (to guffaws). Now a Vatican priest is saying the same thing.

It’s Monsignor Tommaso Stenico, videotaped making sexual advances toward a young man.

As the AP (via IHT) story says:

While there have long been allegations of gays in the Roman Catholic priesthood, the Stenico case is unusual because he is a relatively high-ranking Vatican official. Stenico heads an office in the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy — the main Vatican office overseeing all the world's priests.

Monsignor Stenico says he’s not gay—he was pretending to be gay as part of his “research.”

Not the behavior, not the hypocrisy, it’s the sheer stupidity of Monsignor’s explanation that most discredits the Church.

The Vatican ain’t buying it. They shitcanned him.

The story accurately states RCC’s position on gay people.

Vatican teaching holds that gays and lesbians should be treated with compassion and dignity but that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered."

I guess one way to express compassion is to tell gays and lesbians that they are “intrinsically disordered.”

Funny, I don’t feel intrinsically disordered. I don’t even feel bad about my sex-with-females episodes.

Every once in a while, when someone indicates they assume I’m straight, I’ll disabuse them. Usually I’ll just say I’m gay.

Sometimes, though, I’ll get all haughty and defensive and declare, “I am NOT straight!”

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WERNICH GETS LIFE; POPE SUPPORTED CRIMES

The upshot of this BBC story is that von Wernich (guilty) is the first of possibly many such Church related cases. According to BBC, the Catholic hierarchy in Argentina all condoned, and some actually participated in the Junta's dirty war.

Is there any reason to believe the Catholic hierarchy in any other part of the world is any better?

Here’s the Pope’s kidnapping-for-Jesus bit:

The most high-profile witness during the three-month trial was the Argentine Nobel Peace prize laureate, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, himself a prisoner under military rule.

He declared in court that he had told Pope John Paul II personally that the military was kidnapping the babies of women prisoners.

"The Pope put down the information I'd given him," he said. "Then he told me: 'You also have to think about the children living in communist countries.'"

So, Pope John Paul II approved kidnapping babies if it’s part of a fight against communism.

I guess if you're pro-capitalist, you just want to canonize that guy.

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HAMMER AND NAILS

Catholic priest, Cristian Von Wernich, according to this story on Latin America Press.Org, has been charged with 80 counts of murder and torture.

Von Wernich was chaplain to a group within Argentina’s military junta and is accused of thorough participation in that regime’s “dirty war.”

Von Wernich was charged in December 2005 after evidence surfaced of human rights violations, but the trial only began in early July of this year, when the prosecutor found there was enough evidence to try him for direct responsibility in seven assassinations, 42 cases of kidnapping and disappearances and 31 counts of torture.

This should come as no surprise to Catholic news followers. Instances of priests and bishops collaborating with totalitarian regimes are plentiful.

In Buenos Aires Father Wernich has found support from two Jesuits.

In June, when Von Wernich’s trial date was announced, Jorge Bergoglio, Buenos Aires” top cardinal, said that the “Church is the subject of persecution.” Bishop Andrés Stanovnik of the northern Chaco province timidly defended the priest: “I’m not going to make any value judgments on a brother. One mustn’t prejudge because Father Von Wernich has only been accused, not convicted.”

So we need a Salesian to express…

“I’ve questioned and I continue to question the Church’s role as an institution, above all in the hierarchy, because it wasn’t able to meet the challenge, which is to say, it wasn’t with the crucified,” said Salesian priest Rubén Capitanio, who testified against Von Wernich. “Von Wernich’s case is more than symbolic, because he put himself on the side of the crucifiers.”

Of course this brings up the deepest of contradictions: Christians sold out to the empire that crucified their savior.

The poor deluded Jews. They thought the Messiah would help them gain enough military power to throw off their oppressors, the Roman Empire.

Little did they know that Jahweh’s intent all along was to join up with the Roman Empire itself. As John the Baptist was to Jesus, so Jesus was to Constantine the Great, paving the way.

Holy Roman Empire. Holy Catholic Church.

So the Jewish people basically performed the role of unpaid surrogate mother--"thanks for giving us Jesus, now take a shower."

That’s the birthright Jacob swindled. Way to go, Jacob!

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--KEEPS ON GIVING

Over at Metrexius Journal, Vas Corp Por describes a boring metaphysics class, his hatred of someone named Plantinga, and Mike Tyson’s fist.

Vas' attention was grabbed when:

Somehow, this branched off into a discussion about sex. Evidently, my poor professor was educated by Jesuits for 8 years, and he claims to be completely incapable of conceiving of sex without guilt. As in, he can't imagine a sex act that doesn't involve guilt somehow, because the bloodsucking Jesuits taught him that even sexual thoughts are sinful. It's objectively wrong, they say. Cripes, that must be awful; I'll take my humanistic moral noncognitivism and guilt-free sex over their "complete metaphysics" any day of the week, thankyouverymuch. Tee hee!

I’m, like, “What he said.”

The title of the post: Gives “Mindfuck” a Whole New Meaning.

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