The Pope is on a tear. First he promoted a
Holocaust-denying priest, now he’s hyping a bishop who says Hurricane
Katrina was God’s will.
To a certain degree, the Pope is allowed not to be a
political creature; he’s acknowledged as one of the world’s great
contrarians (the birth control and celibacy stuff). But even for popes
there are the rules of media and PR. And this pope either knows nothing
about those rules (is unworldly in the way that is, on the one hand,
refreshing, and on the other, also ignorant of non-Catholic concerns
like the Holocaust), or is going to war with those rules.
The message here may be not only that the Pope does not
care what the modern world thinks about the Vatican, but he’s not above
throwing it a little red meat. That is, you would not make such
audacious and belligerent moves unless you were a benighted fool, or
had a specific point to make.
The point, if it is not mere dimness and incompetence, is
a terrifically hostile one. A screw you. A nose-thumbing. The finger,
in fact. The reasonable protocols of secular discussion abandoned. The
Pontiff’s inviting a backlash, begging for one.
(AP Images)
Arguably, it’s a German thing. Certainly a German pope
rescinding the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop, and then
promoting him to boot, takes a bit of chutzpah. And, not unlikely, it’s
a broader message. A willful expression of authoritarian temperament
and settling of old scores (the Catholic Church has had to eat a lot of
crow about the Holocaust). For that matter, the bishop who thinks God
was having his revenge on the deviants of New Orleans, Gerhard Maria
Wagner, is an Austrian. So, a sort of old home week in the Vatican.
Assuming he’s not daft, what’s Benedict got up his sleeve?
It doesn’t seem entirely churlish or paranoid to wonder if
it’s an Obama deal. As it happens the Catholic Church is now filled
with Africans, and yet it's hard to believe this makes the German pope
so happy. His Holocaust denier and Katrina finger-waver ("It's not just
any old city, but the people's dream city with the best brothels and
the most beautiful whores," said Father Gerhard) are a pretty striking
way to say enough is enough.
Or a depression stunt. If what you want is to return the
Church to when it was the Church, when Jews were Jews (without the
cudgel of the Holocaust), and New Orleans was shocking, this particular
moment, what with the modern world in retreat, might be the time to
make your point.
Or possibly he thinks the apocalypse is upon us, and, in
that event, you can’t fault the guy for wanting to best position
himself.
More of Newser founder Michael Wolff's articles and commentary can be found at VanityFair.com, where he writes a regular column. He can be emailed at michael@newser.com
