As regards to giving him time, how much time do you need? The guy is already 78 years old and taking up the position of leader of 1.1 bn Catholics worldwide, at a time when most leaders of any organisation are usually retired.

Regardless of his Hitler Youth affiliations, which he can be forgiven for, he already has his whole life as a track record. Given that he was the Pope in waiting as John Paul II was ailing, it’s not likely that he’ll change.

And I’m reasonably sure he isn’t. That’s why I was wondering why he took offense.

David – No, I’m not Catholic. Are you Jewish?

David – seeing as you liked to jump to the conclusion that I was Catholic, I thought I’d jump to the conclusion you were Jewish.

The Inquisition survived within the Catholic Church until the early 1980′s when it was renamed the Centre or Office for the Doctrine of the Faithful. Ratzinger headed that Office within the Vatican.

Ratzinger has come down hard on those that theologically question the traditional views of the Catholic church. He vehemently opposed an iniative by Asian Catholics to embrace different spiritual backgrounds (as they were losing much ground to new “Christian” offshoots). I’m not entirely sure whether he had them excommunicated, funding withheld or what.

He’s been the traditionalist voice in the late John Paul’s ear. John Paul II once asked for forgiveness for the Catholic Church, and said Catholics must forgive too. It just makes it harder with an inquisitor on the papal throne.

The Catholic Church needs a new lease of life to it. When I mockingly suggest that the faithful continue to fill the Vatican coffers, it’s because Catholism will lose more of its dwindling flock as it become disconnected from serving real world spiritual needs. But then, the Vatican has plenty of cash from its property assets worldwide, weekly donations, and almost a millenia of worldwide rape and pillage of those who opposed her.

John Paul II was a liberal yet he stuck to some traditional hardline views. With Ratzinger, it almost becomes a certainty that no more liberalism within the Church will continue. And even the liberal moves made by John Paul seem in jeopardy now.

Ah yes, the great Wiki as a source of established knowledge. I can go in there right now myself and right up all the stuff that I’ve just said here on my blog and it will get published up there. That is until a writer with say a Catholic bias comes along and changes it. Not a definitive source for definitions that come in different shades of grey. Guaranteed, if I look up the Vietnam war it will have been written by hard right American patriots or American apologists. How many Vietnamese have access to the Internet? That’s Wiki for you.

My sources? I read a few books on the Inquisition. My interest in religion and spiritualism went back long before Dan Brown’s own assertions. There were also a number of articles in Time magazine on Ratzinger before John Paul II died. Actually, none of my statements come from any of Brown’s books. My dislike for the Catholic Church stemmed way before that, at about the same time I discovered a loathing for extremist religious organisations the world over. The road to God is a personal spiritual journey.

Religion is a form of control, pure and simple. In this regard, it perhaps shouldn’t be transient and should remain rigid. But it should always strive to be contextually relevant for the people in the contemporary for it to strive to be a meaning more than a control. Values are changing and interpretation of these values are fluid.

Perhaps we should stop eating pork? The Bible does tell us this and it is traditional for Christians not to eat it in accordance with the Bible. It’s also nice to know how we can handle our slaves because the Bible happily lays this out for us.

Catholicism is atoning for its past. John Paul II began that process but with Ratzinger I doubt it will be easier to continue that atonement. The Inquisition should have been abolished utterly and completely, not renamed and reformed. That would have been one gesture at least to atonement.

We have an expression in Greek – Filese to kolo mou…