Pope Benedict X I V and Neo-Paganism

Hi all,

I noticed a news items on the BBC news today which I think will bypass most people but I think it may be an important indication of how the new Pope thinks.

The Pope was in Cologne and was warning against the new rise of anti-semitism. And that's well and good except during the speech he also said this:- "In the 20th century, in the darkest period of German and European history, an insane racist ideology, born of neopaganism, gave rise to the attempt, planned and systematically carried out by the regime, to exterminate European Jewry," he said. (Italics mine).

It would be truer to say that SOME Nazi's practiced a convoluted form of NeoPaganism and were into the Occult: it is a well known fact that Hitler was interested in the dark side of the Occult. But to say that this represents NeoPaganism is similar to saying that the Crusades represented Christianity as taught by Christ. What some Nazi's followed was a warped interpretation of NeoPaganism that the Nazi's used for their own ends. Officially the Nazi party was atheistic because all allegiance had to be given to the State. Just as atheism was the official line of the Communist Party in the USSR - because again all allegiance had to be given to the State. Allegiance to God would have competed in both cases for total allegiance to the State. This is one of the reasons why both of these regimes were considered to be totalitarian.

Now it may be that the Holy Father has not investigated this matter fully and sincerely believes that he is right. But I think it is more indicative of his Conservative thinking. Imagine if he had said that Al-Qaeda represented Islam. There would have been an outcry.

But it is OK to give this distorted view of NeoPaganism and the resultant adverse publicity to those not informed about Paganism true message. The one rule that Paganism states is: Do what you will but harm none. Hardly a moral message that equates with the attempted genocide of the Jews!

It is not for nothing that I also note that Paganism is the Catholic Church's historical enemy, at least in the sense that the Catholic Church sought to repress the native Pagan traditions of many countries when it sought to establish itself there.

Where it couldn't completely quell Pagan traditions it sought to incorporate them. So you get the Christmas Tree at Christmas, which is a Pagan not a Christiran tradition. And that is just one example.

Could it be that the Holy Father, (or his advisers), have noted that Paganism is a fast growing religion and especially so amongst young people, and so his comment about it was thrown in for good measure?

Paganism is attracting young people because it is more in keeping with the liberal traditions of modern society than traditional Catholicism and that of course is in direct contradiction to the direction Pope Benedict XIV would like to see society go in.

And this now comes a short time after the Pope condemned Harry Potter as leading youth to the Occult.

If the Pope wishes to make peace between the world religions if is a pity that he does not extend this invitation to modern Paganism which is now established in the UK as a bona fide religion to the extend that it is recognised by the Home Office and there are now Pagan ministers in prisons.

People may try to stem the tide but we are here to stay and growing.

Blessed be Pope Benedict XIV.

Blessed be all others also,

KK

PS I composed this yesterday.

Today I add a quote from Isaac Bonewits "The term “Neopaganism” has nothing to do with the Catholic Church’s recent use of “neo-paganism” to refer to Hitler’s Germanic Mesopaganism, which incorporated nineteen centuries of Christian anti-semitism and dualism. Hitler, after all, considered himself a good Christian and was perceived as such by many, if not most, German Christians at the time. The Catholic Church is simply trying to distract attention away from its responsibility for creating the Western cultural environment that dehumanized Jews, and from its pathetic record in opposing the Holocaust while it was going on (not to mention the value to the Church in trashing competing new religions by associating us with the Nazis)."

Well done Isaac!

KK