Tuesday 1 May 2012

Pope Benedict in Germany: Fr. Barron reviews the Speech to the Reichstag

Pope Benedict addressing the Riechstag
Fr. Robert Barrons' review of Pope Benedict's visit to Germany and his address to the Riechstag is well worth viewing; especially with the rise of a neo-fascism across the EU, Canada and the US. The recent out of hand rejection of even discussing abortion in the Canadian Parliament by "conservative" Prime Minister Stephen Harper - joined eagerly by socialists demonstrates the degree of self-censorship and  subtle statist ideology masquerading as democracy; in truth fascism.


Fascism has become so pernicious, that it is the default position for various "progressive" voices in society.  A typical example is the the website run by Political Research Associates (PRA). They get off to a wrong start, by completely misunderstanding fascism. Their superficial approach completely avoids the ideology of statism by focusing on a more or less strawman of Naziism. In part, their Mission statement includes: "the political and Christian Right use skillful marketing that exploits the public’s desire for quick solutions and capitalizes on today’s hectic information flow. With clever slogans that oversimplify complex public policy issues, the Right routinely scapegoats others in pursuit of their agenda". 

The loathsome Adolph Hitler reviewing fellow Nazi thugs
Yet, what has the PRA said and done? Firstly, they have created a climate of fear and name calling to create a social consensus to remove whom they do not like from the public discourse (e.g. the Catholic Church). Secondly, and this works by a general extension of the former, by being enshrined in legislation having conditioned the population. Such was the case in the 1930s in Germany. Firstly demonize the Jews, then remove their humanity, then outlaw them, and then... The PRA has nicely identified itself, though inadvertently, as fascist. 

Fr. Robert Barron
Finally, delving into some of the PRA archival material, we discover that - lo and behold! - Pope Benedict is a dangerous "traditionalist" (hint - a "far right" etc.). All of this begs the question of the PRA: is Fr. Barron "fascist" too?

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