To the five members of the Emerald editorial board: Your opinion piece on the politics of Pope Benedict XVI (“Pope’s life doesn’t fit his ‘special greeting,’” ODE, April 27) was shameful, disgraceful and pathetic. Attempting to pass off your ideas as enlightened, flawless truth is a disgrace to all writers. Your piece was extremely misleading, ignorant and unethical.
Before I correct your uninformed thought processes, I would like to just remind you about something the American media seem to forget: The issues discussed in your article and those surrounding your disdain for the new pope (abortion, gay marriage, the sex abuse scandal and salvation) are not open to change simply because the laity doesn’t like them. The Church is not run the same way Hollywood is, in that whatever is popular and feels good is in. You non-Catholics should check yourselves before attempting to inform we, the faithful, on what our pope should be teaching.
You stated that the Pope’s attempt at reaching out to Muslims was sad because he “barely” mentioned them in a special greeting to other faiths. I recall a New York Times article in which the opening paragraph records Benedict XVI as being “grateful” for a Muslim presence at his investiture ceremony and hoped for a “growth of dialogue between Muslims and Christians” at local and international levels.
Later in your piece you claim the pope “denied the reality of ongoing sexual-abuse issues, calling the scandal a U.S. plot to degrade the Catholic faith.” Again you are wholeheartedly incorrect in your assertion. Pope Benedict publicly decried the sex abuse by priests when he was quoted as saying, “How much filth there is in the church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to (Christ).” He then scolded the media for focusing solely on the 1 percent of “filth” in the Church and never giving credit to the countless number of righteous deeds done in the Church. I find it funny that the media seem to forget who is the world’s largest provider of private health care and education.
I will save readers time by skipping over the other factual errors that hit on Benedict’s history with the Hitler Youth movement. Anyone with a working knowledge of history understands that virtually all male German youths were in some way or another forced to join. With this in mind, you wrote, “It certainly seems anachronistic that Pope Benedict XVI should be working on such (interfaith) relationships considering his former position as a member of a hate organization.”
This is not only trivial, it is asinine. Where is the logic in that statement? Are you actually suggesting that the leader of a 1.1 billion-person religious institution not work toward interfaith dialogue?
As my frustration continues to grow over the complete lack of respect on the part of five ignorant writers, I must remind myself of where you get your information: from the same ignorant American news media that report on issues unknown to themselves. I am sorry you do not have enough faith in your readers to allow them to decide issues for themselves.
Michael S. Tarascio
is a University senior