Things You Don't Talk About in Polite Company

Vatican politics are always funny. Let's be straight. I'm Catholic. I go to mass on weekends. I also don't hold Opus Dei in high regard.

The aura of secrecy around Opus Dei which is described in this article is at once chilling and pleasing to me. On the one hand, I believe that these people rationally choose to belong to such an organization and I am happy that there exist people who have the self-discipline to remove themselves from cetain facets of this modern world. On the other hand, I am in disagreement with such practices as mortification of the flesh or the segregation of the sexes.

The last section of the article gives out the primary focus of the current papacy. John Paul II is above all a virulent anti-Communist. His ideal form of government is probably socialist in nature, but he hates Communism. The conservativism of the current pope and of the organizations such as Opus Dei is actually an opposition to the revolutionary zeal that carried the bearers of the spirit of communism. The pope's strong opposition to war, nuclear weapons, and the death penalty are not given as wide a play in the media as those issues that paint the pope as a conservative SOB (abortion, women priests).

Hey, guess what? People want to paint Catholics as conservatives. Damn liberals. You'd think they'd realize the inherent progressive nature of Catholicism. But liberalism has been hijacked by not just secularists, but staunchly anti-religious folks. And I'm going to stop now, because otherwise I will just start ranting.