The German Pope

[Tinoire]

I posted this in GD where it will die like a speck on a beam but wanted to repost it here for everyone. Frankly, I've been sick of the racist "we own the world" superiority of America and Britain and the rest of their Anglo colonies- the most warmongering countries in the modern world. I think the Germans have this one pegged right. Wish I didn't have to snip...


THE GERMAN POPE

England Fumes over Selection of "Papa Ratzi"

By Matthias Matussek

With stunning meanness and unabashed mockery, the British press are lambasting the choice of a German as pope. The catch phrases of the day are "Hitler" "Tank Cardinal" and "God's Rottweiler." In short, the English papers are doing less reporting than seething with rage.

(snip)

But, on this particular day, British souls are seething. Not only is the church being taken seriously as an instrument of world power, but it is now to be headed by a German.

Ratzinger vs. Swastika Harry

The papacy, the Daily Telegraph reminds its readers in central England, has great power. "Geopolitically it changed the face of the world, not least by bringing the soviet empire tumbling down." The paper's front page, however, takes a brutal swipe at the Vatican's latest choice. "God's Rottweiler is Pope," the headline glares.

Not to be outdone, the tabloid The Sun too, hits hard, offering up the headline "From Hitler Youth to Papa Ratzi." The paper thus kills two birds with one stone: it recalls another powerful German -- the one man who even today captivates the diabolical fantasies of Brits like no other -- and it makes the pope look ridiculous. Above the pope story, the publishers place a photo of the young bad-boy Prince "Swastika" Harry, a perfect manifestation of the sort of modern Catholic Ratzinger so often rails against. The Daily Mirror clearly takes great delight in the optical mishmash of "Panzerkardinal," "Hitler Youth," and "Nazi Sympathizer" -- all on one full spread. It reports from the "Weimar-Inferno" of Germany that the "TV stations swept their news agendas free of domestic woes about joblessness and crime" to report on the election. Naturally, the ugly German also trots through these pages as a Rottweiler, and the victoriously-raised arms of the pope leave plenty of room open for other meanings and historical associations. With the exception of the Independent, hardly any British paper even mentions Ratzinger's theology. And even then, the paper leads with a Hilter Youth photo and spends five full pages bashing Ratzinger and delivering an unrelenting list of his sins. It characterizes Ratzinger's enthronement as an adroitly engineered Machiavellian coup in the style of the successors of the Kremlin. Ratzinger "set the agenda of the conclave," he "restricted" contact with the press, and gave the deciding sermon -- a coldly calculated power-play by "the German."

Poorly-reasoned arguments against Ratzinger

(nip)

The paper writes that "Ratzinger moved to stamp out liberation theology, a trend in Catholic thought mainly in Latin America which mixed Catholic theology with Marxist analysis of capitalism. Where John Paul II, with his Polish background, had some sympathy with the movement and its critique of the cruelties of capitalism, the German theologian had none. He decided to stamp it out." Where did that come from? John Paul II never sympathized with Marxism. In fact, he sought to distance the Catholic Church from it. Did the paper conclude he had sympathy for Marxism merely because he so distrusted capitalism? Only someone who had been forced yesterday to read up on the issue could have misinterpreted it as badly as that.

Ratzinger, it alleges, "stamped out" liberation theology. But this tremolo of tears for a liberation theology destroyed by Rome is the last cry of a contemporary theory market. It is, of course, purely tactical and nothing other than a critical maneuver against the church. Barely 20 years after the last intellectuals agreed that Marxism was a bloody and totalitarian detour away from the Enlightenment, liberal commentators like those at the Independent have discovered a new sympathy for it. Largely this is because it has been condemned by Ratzinger and the Vatican.

(snip)

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,352550,00.html

[IronLionZion]

1. Only someone who had been forced yesterday to read up on the issue

Only someone who had been forced yesterday to read up on the issue could have misinterpreted it as badly as that.

That sentence says it all.

The DUers in GD have been spewing their misinformed propaganda as if they were fascists. You have to love the herd mentality of people who don't know what they're talking about.

[DemBones DemBones]

3. Not to mention the herd mentality of those who

bleat repeatedly about "Pope Ratzo" or "Papa Ritzi." While it it true that some names are funny, making fun of a person's name is a low form of humor. When done habitually, it displays the joker's true character for all the world to see.

[Maeve]

5. Maybe it would be better not to judge on an enjoyment of wordplay

But rather on the intent, as shown in the malice or lack thereof of the rest of their speech.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. I think it depends on how long the enjoyment of wordplay lasts

as well as the malice or lack thereof in the rest of their speech. I've always noticed how some people make fun of others' names and it's not often motivated simply by a benign enjoyment of wordplay. Sure, "Ratzinger" is a "funny" name to American ears but so are some "Jewish" names, such as "Lipschitz." Do you think that if Israel elected a new prime minister named Lipschitz, DU would be full of wordplay about his or her name? Or would posters realize that disrespecting a person's name tends toward disrespect not only of the person but of his heritage?

There's more than a hint of hatred of Germans and of Catholics in the name "Papa Ratzi," and a bit of a dig at Italians, too, by making "Ratzinger" into a more Italian-sounding, yet insulting, name (which also sounds like papparazzi, a much-despised profession.)

I see and appreciate the humorous side of this but I've spent too many years in classrooms not to see the bullying side of it, too. That doesn't mean I think you, dear Maeve, are a bully for finding it an amusing bit of wordplay!

When you and I chuckle at the name "Papa Ratzi," we do so because it's clever wordplay.

Others, however, have darker reasons for using these appellations for our new pontiff, the same sort of reasons behind the wordplay of "Clintoon" or "Martin Luther Coon."

[IronLionZion]

11. Hitlery Clinton

has to be the most ridiculous one I've ever heard. :P And KKKarl Rove is funny too.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. The author of the piece, Paul Vallely, has a lot of experience in the area

Paul Vallely is Associate Editor of The Independent where he writes on social, ethical and religious issues.

As Africa correspondent of The Times he covered the Ethiopian famine of 1984/85 for which he was commended as International Reporter of the Year. He then travelled across Africa with Bob Geldof to decide how to spend the
money raised by Live Aid. He subsequently co-wrote Bob Geldof's best-selling autobiography, Is That It? He has reported from 30 countries in the developing world and was nominated for the UN Media Peace Prize.

He has been chairman of the leading development think-tank, the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR). He was also chairman of the fair trade organisation Traidcraft. He has worked on special projects with the development agencies Christian Aid and Cafod and has been editorial adviser to the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales.

He is a former executive editor of the Independent on Sunday and of the Sunday Times News Review.

He has written a number of books including Bad Samaritans: First World Ethics and Third World Debt and Promised Lands, a study of land reform in the Philippines, Brazil and Eritrea. He is the editor of The New Politics: Catholic Social Teaching for the 21st century and A Place of Redemption: a Christian approach to punishment and prison.

http://www.commissionforafrica.org/english/about/secretariat-vallely.html

[Maeve]

2. I still think the name "Papa Ratzi" is funny, but....

The vitriol I've seen is softening me up to the man. Maybe he is misunderstood...

And the humor is in the pun alone--much like the 1978 joke about an Italian Cardinal who had no chance of election because of his name...no one wanted a Pope Sicola!

[IronLionZion]

6. Cardinal Law and Cardinal Sin are funny names too

bwahaha!

[DemBones DemBones]

8. True enough, and imagine the jokes the poor men have had to endure! nt

[meow2u3]

4. "God's Rottweiler"? Wrong breed now

So, to stay on the dog analogy, wouldn't "Jesus' German Shepherd" be a more appropriate nickname for the new Pope Benedict XVI?

[DemBones DemBones]

9. Everyone should click on Tinoire's link in her sig

that says something about Pipes (meaning Daniel Pipes) approving of "camps."

But not if you just ate, perhaps. :scared:

[IronLionZion]

12. I just saw Daniel Pipes on campus last Thursday

Now that's a fascist :scared: There were way more protestors than supporters.