Ah the monkey in the room no one wants to talk about. Most people don't know much about the Vatican Bank. Usually their only reference is the Godfather III movie and the cigarette smoking devious Archbishop Gilday . See Pic above.
Still the Vatican Bank has often been a mess. John Paul the II put in a guy that helped clean it up. The new guy now in charge looks good too. There is an interesting article on him via Chiesa at The Vatican Bank Has a New Laissez-Faire President: Ettore Gotti Tedeschi
This part struck me
His most recent appearance, before his appointment, was on September 19 at the Palazzo della Borsa in Genoa. Together with the archbishop of the city and president of the CEI, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, he discussed the encyclical "Caritas in Veritate" by Benedict XVI. He said that the current global economic crisis "originated in the failure to follow the guidelines of 'Humanae Vitae', that is, in the rejection of life and the suppression of childbirth."Gotti Tedeschi had expressed the same idea in an editorial in "L'Osservatore Romano" last June 6. If the economic hegemony of the world passes from the West to China, he wrote, it will be because of their different birth rates and population densities. Demographic trends determine the increase or decrease of an economy's productive capacity.
It...the contraception topic... is an amazing obsession (even if birth control is wrong and sinful and proves so in the long run) as usury was an obsession for centuries. Catholics denounced other Catholics for about 1400 years til 1830 if they took interest on a personal loan. After 1830 it was ok. That may or may not happen also on barrier method contraception...history will tell. It's hard to believe that accurate NFP which over 1950 years worth of Catholics did not have at their disposal....is the perfect ancient answer when it was only analysed in the 19th century scientifically and prior to that was not explicitly allowed by Rome which gave affirmation explicitly only in the 19th century.
ReplyDeleteSo then bundling bad mortgages with good ones in derivatives that then received an AAA rating from Standard and Poors was not the real issue....nor was the bad mortgages being bad because they required no substantiation of income and some were interest only and many doubled in monthly payment after one year unbeknownst to the buyer.
The real culprit was an encyclical being rejected by over 90% of Catholics.
Well Usury is a whole different topic. But as to Contraception that "obsession has been going on for about 2000 years and it was not really intil recently that even many Protestants accepted it
ReplyDeleteAs to the crisis it has merit. Even Spengler a tthe Asian times has been warning about this for several years. The demograhpic problem is just starting
James H
ReplyDeleteWe joined the Protestants in getting liberal on usury but no one
mentions that. We joined the Protestants who originally asked for vernacular in the liturgy but that was not caving in on our part. Apparently when we accept the new, it is called "developing".... but when Protestants do it at Lambeth, it is called by us...caving in. We are incurably an ad hominem people. We praise our changing as growth and call other groups' changing...caving in to the world.
Are you aware that there were 265 Popes and that only about 8 wrote on this topic. Try finding 9. It is 2000 years old as an issue because early Christians associated it with prostitutes and potions...just as early Christians were against being in the army for a similar "guilt by association" feeling: ie..the Roman army was brutal ergo soldiering must be brutal....prostitutes use contraception ergo it must be awful.
There are reasons that some of the most prominent theologians (not just loose cannons like Curran) of the last 100 years did not see this as so constant a tradition. The death penalty goes back to Genesis 9:5-6 for the gentiles and was affirmed in 1952 by Pius XII. John Paul attacked it and not a traditional Catholic anywhere was concerned with a 4 thousand year old idea going out the window. Your banking head at the Vatican probably did not say boo because he like all clergy advance or stay advanced at their position based on conformity...that was how Cardinal Law advanced and if you later read of his protection of children, his orthodoxy on birth control meant zero. Our traditionalism is sporadic and very selective because the career factor of clergy is a distortive influence.
Any clergy that denounce birth control score points. But that is why it has replaced the New Testament in importance. Humanae Vitae for some is more important than the Beatitudes which they cannot recite or explain....ie HV is more important than many of the words of Christ for its devotees.
Adieu...the last word is yours.