Reflections in a Jaundiced Eye

TODAY'S "MORAL AUTHORITY", PART TWO

Today's headlines tell us about the resignation of the Roman Archbishop-appointee of Warsaw in Poland.  This major surprise took place during the Ceremonies designed to elevate and enthrone the man in the Archiepiscopal Office.  The reason for this totally unexpected act was given as "co-operation with the secret police", at an earlier time in the Archbishop-appointee's career.

During the dark days of World War Two, the Archbishop-Primate of Croatia - then a part of the union of small Balkan countries cobbled together after World War One to make up the Nation of Yugoslavia - one Alois Stepinac, was a prominent leader in the group that collaborated with the Nazi occupation forces in their efforts to complete the "Final Answer to the Jewish Question".  This Roman Prelate actively assisted in the Nazi roundup of Jews, who were then sent off to the death camps that were the Nazi "solution" to what the then Pope, Eugenio (Pius XII) Pacelli, had called the "vexing problem of the Jews" in Europe.

In addition to being an enthusiastic participant in the Nazi pogrom against the Jews, the Croatian Archbishop also established a "Croatian Orthodox Church", the clergy of which were to be substituted for true (Serbian) Orthodox Clergy, throughout the areas of Nazi occupation.  And he was also instrumental in the Nazi roundup, and slaughter, of Orthodox Faithful, both Clergy and Lay, that accompanied the campaign against Yugoslavia's Jewish population.

At the close of World War Two, when the Yugoslav Government of Josip Broz (Tito) sought to bring notorious war criminals to trial, after the example of Nuremburg, Eugenio (Pope Pius XII) Pacelli created Archbishop Alois Stepinac a "Cardinal Prince of the Church"; and additionally, Pacelli declared Stepinac to be totally immune to any form of Civil Government prosecution, or other action whatsoever, for war crimes committed during Stepinac's own lengthy and enthusiastic "cooperation with the secret police", the Nazi Gestapo.

Today, during the reign of Josef (Benedict XVI) Ratzinger as Pope, himself a Hitler Youth graduate, the Archbishop-appointee of Warsaw is forced to resign the office, because of "cooperation with the secret police" in his country.  The dilemma surrounding the vastly different outcomes in the lives of the two Roman Prelates is easily resolved however.  The Archbishop-appointee of Warsaw simply "cooperated" with the WRONG secret police; a Polish secret police not established by the followers of Adolf Hitler, and not Blessed and approved by the Roman Pontifex Maximus, in whom resides the "moral authority" necessary to the existence of such a secular form of (un)-Holy Inquisition.

But, don't be alarmed.  These little contretemps will occur on occasion.  The retiring Cardinal-Prince-Primate of Poland, Jozef Glemp - himself a firm believer in doing everything necessary to diminish the importance of any and all matters related to the Holocaust, such as the prominence of Auschwitz in its history - has already begun to spread thickly the obligatory whitewash, necessary to obscure the problem and obfuscate all observers.  And the restoration of the "moral authority" of Romanism, over Poland and over the rest of the world as well, is currently well underway. 

Revised-11/02/09