Sticky Guns

I assume the phrase "stick to your guns" has to do with soldiers remaining at their post and trying to kill the bad guys despite the declining odds, and not some weird fantasy some "stimulated" people might have:)

OK - back to reality.

I recently read a couple of posts in Godless Liberal Homo's blog (<-- a most awesome blog name!), and got to thinking about the Holocaust, the Catholic Church's views on this + their point of view on the role that their leaders (like Richard Williamson) must play.

Notwithstanding an absolutely unambiguous denial of the Holocaust, Williamson was returned to the Church. I wasn't born, or in Germany during WWII, and can't personally attest to it, but from what I've seen, there was a whole lot of evil that occurred in that place at that time against everyone who was viewed as not part of the Master Race. In fact, I'm pretty sure I would have been among those that got nuked.

But our hero, Richard Williamson, is once more thrust unto the breech, and now carries the title of Bishop, which conveys upon him the role of "teaching the faith and ruling the Church." I bet he's got one of these stickers to the left on the door of his natural gas-powered oven.

His convictions I presume are part of his/the faith. Which implies has been entrusted to guide people who seek "truth" based on his principles, convictions, and beliefs. What's more, the effect is multiplied, since a Bishop outranks a Minister, he will run a bunch of churches, influencing the voice of all those that will minister to the members of each of these churches, and their brethren.

How the Vatican can be sanguine about this? The Church's argument against abortion or birth control is that it is murder, and they don't sanction murder (Thou shalt not kill). But isn't Bishop Williamson violating the essence of this Commandment by denying the killing of millions of people? Doesn't reinstating him imply that the Church agrees with his views?

What's next? Will the Vatican decide to ordain a physician who performs abortions?

Talk about sticky guns!

I presume they readmitted the Bishop because they wanted to inject more conservative opinions into the fabric of the Church. The effect though, is to basically flaunt one of the Ten Commandments and call into question any related "arguments" based on that Commandment (like proscribing abortion, birth control, etc.), which puts the Church on a whole different footing.

I am not religious so I don't know how this type of dichotomy gets resolved, and this one seems pretty glaring. As the leadership in the Vatican thinks through this, I wonder if they will back out, or find a way to spin this to mitigate the harm? And if they are able to spin this to neutral or positive, I've gotta say, I'd want to hire their marketing team!

I wonder what Charlton Heston would think of all this?