“We forgive and We ask Forgiveness.” With these words Pope John Paul the second made his millenial apology on behalf of the Catholic Church for the “sins its children committed in its name” – particularly in the last 1,000 years.
The sins were not specifically enumerated. But when you boil them down they come to this — they are political acts by an institution of faith: the Crusades, The Inquisition, persecution of Jews, the forced conversions of Indians and Africans acts to preserve the power and enrich the Church, acts committed in Concert with Monarchs bound to the church by oath.
But all these are acts of the past, what about the present? The Church remains a highly political institution. The shape of this apology, an act of faith, was subject to the same institutional pressures as a Congressional spending bill. It was a political process.
The Roman Catholic Church as a vessel of faith and an organ of politics in this hour.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)
Guests:
Rev. John Shelby Spong, author of “Here I Stand,” James Carroll, contributor to The New Yorker, author of “American Requiem,” Tom Groom, Professor of Theology and Education and Boston University and author of “Educating for A Life.”