Friday 15 June 2007

THUNDER and drops of rain

That's my excuse for blogging not writing. Believe me, it's sure as hell trying to come down in the quantities shown on the lunchtime news. So far, it's failing miserably. My mood was of thunder on reading that the Catholic Church is telling its communicants not to contribute to Amnesty because of that brave organisation's work with tortured women. This is Amnesty's response. I find the Catholic Church's attitude here utterly baffling. It is unhelpful in the extreme to attack an organisation that Jesus himself would pat on the back for its courageous work on behalf of humanity. A little humility is called for here. I'll give you two reasons why. The first is that the current Pope was a member of the Hitler Youth, albeit against his wishes. But there were also boys and girls of his then age who were tortured to death by the Nazis for their opposition to Hitler. The second reason is that the then Pope could have, but never did, excommunicate Hitler. I know the following point is daft, but sometimes daft points have to be made: Adolf Hitler killed millions of people. Geddit? Sanctity of Life! Brave Christians, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, opposed the Nazis, thus ensuring their own deaths. Brave Germans who opposed Hitler included those in The White Rose movement, such as Sophie Scholl. I wonder how many people today would have the courage to oppose such a vicious militaristic dictatorship?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There's a lot we would all like to put behind us. Courage is is not something we know until required to show it. But, well done for pointing out the good and the bad. At least this way younger people can learn how they ought to react given a repeat of such circumstances.