The Vatican has lost control. It now brands criticism of the pope as “terrorism.” L’Osservatore Romano said:
“This, too, is terrorism. It’s terrorism to launch attacks on the Church,” it said. “It’s terrorism to stoke blind and irrational rage against someone who always speaks in the name of love, love for life and love for man.”
They were outraged at remarks made by singer Andrea Rivera during a concert:
“The Pope says he doesn’t believe in evolution. I agree, in fact the Church has never evolved,” he said.
He also criticized the Church for refusing to give a Catholic funeral to Piergiorgio Welby, a man who campaigned for euthanasia as he lay paralyzed with muscular dystrophy. He died in December after a doctor agreed to unplug his respirator.
“I can’t stand the fact that the Vatican refused a funeral for Welby but that wasn’t the case for (Chilean dictator Augusto) Pinochet or (Spanish dictator Francisco) Franco,” he said between musical acts at the open-air concert.
This is terrorism? To criticize hypocrisy in a church? Is it to be punished as terrorism is punished? If so, I guess we should be glad the Vatican is against the death penalty today (if just for pragmatic reasons).
I guess those who say Church teaching about religious liberty and freedom of conscience didn’t change with Vatican 2 are right.
1 response so far ↓
Franklin Jennings // May 3, 2007 at 11:35 am |
They do have a legitimate fear, even if overstating the case, in light of what happened in Italy throughout the 70’s. Even a sweet little old monsignor in Milan was not safe from bombings and the like from young people stirred up by precisely the kind of rhetoric employed by Rivera.
But good to hear you are coming around to a hermeneutic of continuity. That other one tends to lead to schism.