Blumenthal: Holy warriors (Ratzinger & Bush*)

[kskiska]

Cardinal Ratzinger handed Bush the presidency by tipping the Catholic vote. Can American democracy survive their shared medieval vision?

By Sidney Blumenthal

President Bush treated his final visit with Pope John Paul II in Vatican City on June 4, 2004, as a campaign stop. After enduring a public rebuke from the pope about the Iraq war, Bush lobbied Vatican officials to help him win the election. "Not all the American bishops are with me," he complained, according to the National Catholic Reporter. He pleaded with the Vatican to pressure the bishops to step up their activism against abortion and gay marriage in the states during the campaign season.

About a week later, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger sent a letter to the U.S. bishops, pronouncing that those Catholics who were pro-choice on abortion were committing a "grave sin" and must be denied Communion. He pointedly mentioned "the case of a Catholic politician consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws" -- an obvious reference to John Kerry, the Democratic candidate and a Roman Catholic. If such a Catholic politician sought Communion, Ratzinger wrote, priests must be ordered to "refuse to distribute it." Any Catholic who voted for this "Catholic politician," he continued, "would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion." During the closing weeks of the campaign, a pastoral letter was read from pulpits in Catholic churches repeating the ominous suggestion of excommunication. Voting for the Democrat was nothing less than consorting with the forces of Satan, collaboration with "evil."

In 2004 Bush increased his margin of Catholic support by 6 points from the 2000 election, rising from 46 to 52 percent. Without this shift, Kerry would have had a popular majority of a million votes. Three states -- Ohio, Iowa and New Mexico -- moved into Bush's column on the votes of the Catholic "faithful." Even with his atmospherics of terrorism and Sept. 11, Bush required the benediction of the Holy See as his saving grace. The key to his kingdom was turned by Cardinal Ratzinger.

(snip)


For the first time, an American president is politically allied with the Vatican in its doctrinal mission (except, of course, on capital punishment). In the messages and papers of the presidents from George Washington until well into those of the 20th century, there was not a single mention of the pope, except in one minor footnote. Bush's lobbying trip last year to the Vatican reflects an utterly novel turn, and Ratzinger's direct political intervention in American electoral politics ratified it.

more…
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/04/21/tk/

[Boo Boo]

1. Kick.

:kick:

[Vitruvius]

2. Question: Ratzinger helped Bu$h in -- did Bu$h somehow help Ratzinger

get the papacy?

Scum sticks together, and once-a-Nazi, always-a-Nazi Ratzinger and Bu$h are thick as thieves.

[Vitruvius]

3. AHA -- Ratzinger and Neil Bu$h co-founded an obvious 'front organization';

see JackRiddler's thread at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1411847 , and the Newsday article at http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wochar214226829apr21,0,2092802,print.story

It's a foundation, with no visible activities; a spokesman (truthfully) says: "We keep a low profile because that makes it easier to get work done", neglecting to mention that the work is most probably BFEE dirty work...

Note also that the Bu$h family tends to use Neil Bu$h for the BFEE's more malodorous business (e.g. looting Silverado Savings & Loan); if it stinks to high heavens, Neil's the man...

Sure looks like Ratzinger's a BFEE collaborator. Not surprising for an ex-Hitler-youth and Nazi army veteran. And he loyally delivered the goods for Bu$h in 2004.

-------- -

P.S: This alleged "religious foundation" is, according to the article, "listed by Dun & Bradstreet business credit reports as a management trust for purposes other than education, religion, charity or research..." And Holy-Roller Ratzinger's involved; not religion, not charity, right up Ratzinger's alley.

[cap]

4. it has no web site

eom

[Shallah Kali]

5. Excellent article thanks

We are in a stealth war of religion where instead of out and out attacks like the Taliban instead it is by altering a law here, a law there, eliminating the checks and balances of government. Too many moderate Christians still don't know that bush and the rest are not like them. They don't want everyone to be nice to one another. They want to execute homosexuals and unchaste women. It isn't about freedom to pray in schools it is about a theocracy of their version of christianity. This scares the heck out of me. Maybe I am being :tinfoilhat: but I worry this could lead, if not stopped, to a revival of the medival inquisition.

[Eloriel]

6. Holy Cripes. Even Kennedy didn't have connections with the Pope

This is superb. Go, Sydney!

And of course, ya'll already know this, right?

Neil Bush, Ratzinger co-founders
President's younger brother served with then-cardinal on board of relatively unknown ecumenical foundation
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wochar214226829apr21,0,2092802,print.story