INQUISITION’S NEW ATTIRE

TROUGH THE FICTITIOUS ACT OF ASKING A GENERALIZED PARDON, THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH CAN FEEL INNOCENT FOR 2000 YEARS OF RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS. THE SEXUAL ONE INCLUDED. WICH AUTHORIZES IT TO START ANEW.

(The following article, by Francesco Fricche of Rome, Italy, was published on "Umanità Nova", anarchist weekly, n° 10, March 19, 2000).

The "announce effect" is a common tool in the field of communication, roughly working like this: a personality announces he is going to do something; a strong media campaign follows; targets of the announce modify their behavior, just as if the thing had really happened and then… the announcer doesn’t need to do anything as the effect has been obtained.

This tactics is frequently used (and theorized) as a form of intervention of governors of central banks in stock-exchange markets, when they judge bonds rise too fast. They announce a rise of rates (or they show concern for inflation, or for some other event that will result in an intervention on rates). In consequence, fearing the rise ox taxes, the stock-exchange lowers, and they do nothing, having solved the problem simply by the means of the announce.

The method is frequently used in politics also, when one must defend from self-evident accusations, has no other argument and no intention of doing anything.

It’s the method utilized by the Catholic Church in the so-called "Mea Culpa" about the crimes it committed in the last 2000 years.

After the sensationalism of the announce in the media, one could have expected real admission of guilt.

A Vatican committee, under the chairmanship of Cardinal Ratzinger (head of the Holy Office), has been working for three years to put down a statement with the title: "Memory and reconciliation: the faults of the past", that has been used as theoretical base for the "Mea Culpa". An endless spell, ensued by saying nothing.

If it really meant to do so, the Roman Catholic Church would have heaps of items of faults, to ask humanity to be forgiven from – of all these responsibilities, in the words of the Pope, in his actual behavior or in the documents, one can find no trace.

The leitmotiv is a proclamation of power, ever defining the Church itself "holy", "enlightened by the Holy Spirit", depository of "Truth" – enough to make shudder, if one only thinks at what they have really done. No trace of travail or suffering for being aware of the crimes committed, all that emerges is the will to repeat the very same crimes.

Conversely, in the declarations you can find nostalgia for the past, for the Pope-King, for the Monarchs by the Grace of God: "While before the Enlightenment there existed a sort of osmosis between Church and State, between faith and culture, morality and law".

Most of the iniquitous deeds committed by popes, cardinals, bishops (not mentioned in detail) are considered individual acts. No word is spent for the major crimes performed – always reducing their importance, never mentioning any, but claiming the difficulty of real grasping of historical conditions.

No mention at any current theme, about which the Church should ask pardon, in the first place to women, gays and atheists. Vague forgiveness is asked for the past, for previous half-forgotten issues, consigned to history. Witches are never mentioned.

The few sentences in which the Crusades and the Inquisition are named are not in the papal address but in the statement: "Can today’s conscience be assigned ‘guilt’ for isolated historical phenomena like the Crusades or the Inquisition? Isn’t it a bit too easy to judge people of the past by the conscience of today almost as if moral conscience were not situated in time?" And they refer to them always indirectly as faults committed "serving the Truth". Absolute truth is always on their side: the truth of enslaved native populations, heretics, of anyone but themselves is falsehood.

In some way ironically, they state "Then there is the lack of discernment by many Christians in situations where basic human rights were violated." What are they doing now? Giving support to Pinochet, Castro, Tudjiman means respect for human beings, perhaps?

The only "Mea Culpa" that may convey some changes in the attitude of the Church is the one affecting divisions among Christians – it has a significantly different origin from the others, being born with the attempt to compose the Oriental Schism with the Vatican, submit the national Patriarchs to the authority of the Pope, in this way acquiring hegemony in Eastern Europe. But here again it is not really a "Mea Culpa", rather an "Embrassons-nous" concerted beforehand with the Orthodox hierarchy. As it happened in 1965 with the abolition of the reciprocal anathema of 1054, this presupposes a mutual act from the Orthodox Churches and we must expect a similar step from the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The remaining, rather than "Mea Culpa" are affronts to the memory of the victims, lacking any trace of engagement to abandon the criminal attitude for the present or future.

Let’s take as an example the "apologies" to the Jewish people. Extremely vague references are made to the direct responsibility of Catholic Church in their persecution, mentioned as "tormented history". The Holocaust alone is considered a persecution – only in the "Statement", not in the address – and no word is said for the millennia of exodus, pogroms, ghettos that the Catholic Church and the very-catholic kings were responsible of. Nazism is defined "pagan ideology" while, just like fascism and franchism, in reality were hyper-catholic dictatorships, that enjoyed unconditional support from the Church – the S.S. proclaimed themselves heirs of the Teutonic Knights, Hitler and Goebbels were Catholics.

The only charge they take for Catholics is "the spiritual resistance and concrete action of other Christians was not that which might have been expected from Christ’s followers." and it is opposed to "many Christians who risked their lives to save and to help their Jewish neighbors".

These "apologies" must be compared with to-day’s behavior: Pious IX, the one who reintroduced in Rome the Ghetto and disposed for kidnapping of Jewish children to baptize them, is on the way to sanctification; the same, with slight additional caution, for Pious XII, directly responsible both for the Holocaust and for the impunity of nazi and fascist high ranks.

One of the "Mea Culpa" borders the absurd – the Church not having been able to prevent the laws for interruption of pregnancy. Textually: "Connected to the eclipse of God, one encounters then a series of negative phenomena, like religious indifference, the widespread lack of a transcendent sense of human life, a climate of secularism and ethical relativism, the denial of the right to life of the unborn child sanctioned in pro-abortion legislation,".

To conclude, had a normal person apologized in this way, not only we would not accept it, but we would get even more angry. These are not "Mea Culpa" (my fault), rather we could define them "Tua Culpa" (your fault). But, judging from the media coverage given to the event, don’t worry, the "announce effect" will work once more, the secularists will express satisfaction and the Roman Catholic Church will keep on persecuting women, immigrants, gypsies and Jews, to call for crusades, burn heretics and support dictators, always saying it is not doing it any more.

Francesco Fricche, March 2000