Who Hates The Pope?

Max Sawicky predicts that "If the Pope dies, at least one high-profile wingnut blogger will cite some fragment found on the Internet to demonstrate that Liberals and the Left hated the Pope." I'm afraid I may have to play that role. I certainly wouldn't say that I hate the Pope (among other things, for all my politically aware life he's been in rather bad shape and one gets the sense that he wasn't making all the decisions single-handedly) but I certainly don't admire the man or the institution he heads. Indeed, I find the extent to which it's considered taboo to mention this is a bit odd. Normally, religious leaders who take stances on controversial political or moral issues -- from Pat Robertson to Jesse Jackson to Michael Lerner to whomever else you please -- are considered fair game for criticism and derision from those who disagree with them.

In the United States, for interesting historical reasons, happens to be a country where white Catholics are an important swing constituency and where the Church's Christian Democratic politics happen to be somewhat at odds with those of both major political parties. At least partially as a result of this, the tendency is for actors in the American public debate to emphasize their points of agreement with Catholic teachings in order to appeal to conflicted voters and secure the support or neutrality of the local bishops or what have you. As a political strategy, that's all understandable, but since the American media appears to understand "truth" to mean "printing what Democrats say and what Republicans say" the result is that an eerie reverance for the pontiff pervades the media. But one of the Church's major roles is as an expounder of moral principles, and these are principles that -- quite rightly -- few Americans share. Certainly this one doesn't.