Papal Sin: Structure of deception
Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Wills, is one of the most highly praised Catholic journalists and authors, has recently published a criticizing work against his own church in the past and its present leadership. Wills' thesis of "Papal Sin: Structures of deceit" (Doubleday) is that "the life of the Church authorities is lived within structures of deceit." In his book Wills puts his extensive knowledge of St. Augustine, the church and tradition, to work on the representation of the "structures of deceit" which states are based on the Roman Catholic papacy. Its main idea throughout the book is that each era of history has its own papal problematic. For example, the medieval papacy, was obsessed by lust for political power, as the popes during the Renaissance were consumed by greed treasures. Today, Wills argues sin structural feature of the papacy is intellectual dishonesty.
Cree that the Pope will is powerless to recognize their errors. This in turn forces the defenders of the system to plunge into mental gymnastics, to protect the dogma for which there is no really good arguments. Taking for example, women were excluded from the Catholic priesthood, and historical beliefs that women are ritually impure, and because of the superiority of men. Clearly it is now impossible to call upon those principles, so that advocates of the veto are forced to claim that because Jesus did not accept women, so the church can not. The book describes the official positions on the ordination of women in the church and other issues such as contraception, the role of the church in the Holocaust and priestly celibacy mandatory. Argues that these concerns are imperfect in their intellectual integrity and hypocritical in its historical confirmation of abuse. Wills writes "sentence a man to himself in his own eyes if it is say that he agrees with it." Such gains conflict, the author suggests, is an unappreciated reason behind the current lack of priests.
The three main stages are the focus of the book. The first author tries to show that the church has lied about his treatment of the Jews and their alleged silence during the Holocaust. Implies that an organization capable of lying about what can and could be about anything. The author discusses the alleged doctrine dishonesties regular Catholicism. He also claims that the concept of truth itself is discredited claims of truth and power of the Church. However the problem arises when we look at claims private, we can see that these issues are not necessarily linked, and one does not prove the correctness of others. For wills, despite a supposed anti-Catholic born in the same lie as the root of the Vatican rejection of the ordination of women, their mandatory priestly celibacy, and "homophobia", and his unquestionable faith in the infallibility Pope.
Wills writes that the Catholic Church was poisoned with anti-Jewish outlook for centuries. He becomes a decision by Pius XI in 1928 to quell a Catholic organization called Friends of Israel. For his account of the Pope protested that the group did not take sufficient note of "the continuing blindness of the people" and that his approach was "contrary to the sense and spirit of the church, thought of the Holy Fathers and the Liturgy" ;. Pius XI also has distinguished between religious anti-Judaism, which was condoned by the church and its secular form, it was not. The book goes through a series of critical issues currently within Catholicism. For example, the Vatican claims that he can not administer Communion to remarried divorcees, because that would jeopardize the accuracy of Sacramento, founded by Christ. However, states that the wills of the first four centuries of church history, no concept of marriage as a punishment.
Another important issue discussed in the book refers to priestly celibacy. Wills shows that there is no basis for celibacy, and notes that the fact that nothing is said in the New Testament to support the idea of blessing the bread and wine. He claims that there is no notion of a special priesthood in the New Testament, except that the idea of the priesthood of all believers. The author follows the unpleasant subject of the horrible consequences of celibacy. Research has shown that about twenty percent of priests are sexually active women at any time, and twenty percent of priests are active homosexuals. As mentioned above, where the problem of the declining number of people applying for the priesthood. The general phenomenon of emptying or empty convents and monasteries and is a concern for the author and also blame all the misfortunes of the Church considers pattern. Wills also discusses the terrible and widespread problem of pedophilia in the Roman Catholic Church. How this trend has been developing and worsening in recent years is bad enough in itself, but has also been covered. The poll book showed that between 1983 and 1987 an average of one case per week was reported on the issue of pedophilia, on the other hand every diocese in America has been a case of pedophilia.
One issue discussed in the book is contraception. In 1968 the pope issued a letter Testaments the only contraceptive that is described as the most disastrous century document. The author shows that it has affected a large number of people, as he believes that the problem of the ban on contraception as a lack of biblical authority.
Marian Politics is another theme of the book. Testaments of the Catholic cult of the Virgin Mary is essentially a terrible mistake, which was diffused by the papacy. Wills argues that this trend has been hailed a deadly idolatrously in place of his Lord, the oppression of women, and denigrate sexuality. The author also took over the role of the Holy Spirit, and the clergy infantilise. Mary Wills of representing "the mother of Jesus weakness, not strength." So we have to back off the views of Catholics, and it seems that his only intention is to criticize and reject all doctrines held by its own church. He ignores the fact that the figure of Mary could have offered the world a Christian channel to explore a multitude of meanings in their image. Issues such as the place of the feminine in the church, the relationship between nature and grace, and the cooperation of the creature with its creator, the historical origin of the Messiah are the main problems that could be explained by considering the figure of Mary. By contrast Wills takes his reader on a journey through the art galleries of Florence, in seeking theological errors. For example, when it stops in front of Botticelli Coronation of the Virgin, which represents a unique celebration of the transfiguration of human weakness by grace Wills simply a piece of papal propaganda announcements, such as the Father is God the use of a papal tiara, which is a snapshot comparison of the Pope as he says to God.
Although this work is a comprehensive look at the problems the Catholic Church has many misconceptions that seem to adapt to the thesis of the book. Thus, the reader should carefully consider the issues raised in the book and decide whether it is an essential and important, or added in the proper context.
- Papal Sin: Structure of deception
- Why can `t Married Catholic priests and nuns? Is it healthy to live celibate lives?
- The Vatican document Latest invite a challenge to papal authority for non-Catholics?
- Does anyone know if the Pro Abortion Politicians gave Communion at Papal Mass in DC?
- Why I Am a Catholic
