As predicted by James Wolcott, pResident Chimpy wants to bask in the warmth of a good funeral following the less-than-stellar reviews of "Puppet-Show-and-Bush-Social-Security-
Bush waxed, well, as, um, eloquently as one can expect, considering his documented challenges with public speaking...but did the pope reciprocate? Hmmm...depends on who you read:
Bush's self-proclaimed adherence to Christianity (during one of the presidential debates he said Jesus Christ was his favorite "philosopher") and his constant reference to a new international structure bypassing the United Nations system and long-standing international treaties are worrying the top leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Well-informed sources close to the Vatican report that Pope John Paul II is growing increasingly concerned about Bush's ultimate intentions. The Pope has had experience with Bush's death fetish. Bush ignored the Pope's plea to spare the life of Karla Faye Tucker. To show that he was similarly ignorant of the world's mainstream religions, Bush also rejected an appeal to spare Tucker from the World Council of Churches - an organization that represents over 350 of the world's Protestant and Orthodox Churches. It did not matter that Bush's own Methodist Church and his parents' Episcopal Church are members of the World Council.
Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs, and his constant references to "evil doers," in the eyes of many devout Catholic leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of Revelations - the anti-Christ. People close to the Pope claim that amid these concerns, the Pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health to confront the possibility that Bush may represent the person prophesized in Revelations. John Paul II has always believed the world was on the precipice of the final confrontation between Good and Evil as foretold in the New Testament. Before he became Pope, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla said, "We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel." The Pope, who grew up facing the evils of Hitler and Stalin, knows evil when he sees it. Although we can all endlessly argue over the Pope's effectiveness in curtailing abuses within his Church, his accomplishments external to Catholicism are impressive.
According to journalists close to the Vatican, the Pope and his closest advisers are also concerned that the ultimate acts of evil - the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon - were known in advance by senior Bush administration officials. By permitting the attacks to take their course, there is a perception within the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy that a coup d'etat was implemented, one that gave Bush and his leadership near-dictatorial powers to carry out their agenda
The Pope worked tirelessly to convince leaders of nations on the UN Security Council to oppose Bush's war resolution on Iraq. Vatican sources claim they had not seen the Pope more animated and determined since he fell ill to Parkinson's Disease. In the end, the Pope did convince the leaders of Mexico, Chile, Cameroon, and Guinea to oppose the U.S. resolution. If one were to believe in the Book of Revelations, as the Pope fervently does, he can seek solace in scoring a symbolic victory against the Bush administration. Whether Bush represents a dangerous right-wing ideologue who couples his political fanaticism with a neo-Christian blood cult (as I believe) or he is either the anti-Christ or heralds one, the Pope should know he has fought the good battle and has gained the respect and admiration of many non-Catholics around the world.
The preceding paragraphs, by the way, represent one of the more enigmatic aspects of John Paul II--while his conservative--indeed, midieval theology, was well known, and while there was the very public dressing down of Fr. Miguel D' Escoto in Nicaragua (while the pope himself led cheers when it came opposing the communist government of Poland), there were times when Juan Pablo displayed a surprising degree of progressive thoughts, if not necessarily tendencies. I was reminded of that again last night, while flipping through my limited number of cable channels--the Catholic channel had an extended remix of a number of public addresses he gave, and the amount of time devoted to social justice issues was surprisingly large. Sure, it was mostly window dressing--rarely was any of this publicized in the western press, and some of the anti-capitalist rhetoric can be attributed to the Catholic church being rather fond of feudalism (THEIR good old days)--but it still was interesting to listen to, particularly when one is bombarded over and over again with variants of "greed is good."
And, at least according to Wayne Madsen, JP could see through the wafer thin religiosity of George W. Bush, seeing the inner lump of coal that governs the man's "moral" convictions. And, to change the subject slightly, Juan Cole argues that progressives shouldn't dismiss the late pope out of hand just because he was (in my own words) a complete idiot when it came to gays, women, the sex scandal (well, maybe not an idiot regarding the sex scandals--more of a calculating, cynical head of an organization that hasn't come to grips with a genuine crisis). Cole has a point--and nobody, particularly a pope--is perfect (hell, I voted for Kerry even though I really couldn't think of anything I really liked about the guy, other than the fact that he wasn't Bush). So, arrivederci, GianPaulo--I didn't think you were perfect--by a long shot--but I guess you could've been a lot worse.
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