Dear readers, I’d like you to join me in rising for a slow clap for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
I think we know her best for rejecting the shoulder-rubbing bonhomie of our Worst President Ever. But this week she took on another autocratic, oblivious, right-wing Christian imperialist, Pope Benedict XVI. Yes, a few weeks after the Pope welcomed back an excommunicated Holocaust-denying bishop, Ms. Merkel phoned him personally to call bullshit. In a joint statement, the German government and Vatican said the phone call was a “very constructive conversation” in which they agreed to respect each other’s opinion. To me, that sounds like the many conversations I’ve had with my father where he gets defensive and breaks out the “I’m sorry you’re so upset.” In other words, “I’m backed into a corner here, so I acknowledge your righteous anger without actually, y’know, apologizing for what caused it.” For all the polite politico-speak, Merkel clearly wasn’t buying, saying: “I do not believe that sufficient clarification has been made” about the Pope’s views: i.e. Benny, you are a fucking embarrassment to the German people and you need to completely repudiate this anti-Semitic nutjob and his ravings. She’s joined in her outrage by the Church’s German bishops, whose spokesman says that “there must be consequences for those who are responsible for this”–a fairly revolutionary statement aimed directly at the Pope, who is, BTW, a former member of the Hitler Youth.
Will it make a difference? Fuck no. This is just another episode in the Church’s long history of “one step forward, two steps back” with the Jewish community. And Benedict, like nearly every Pope before him, does not give a damn what a secular authority like Angela Merkel says. She is, after all, elected by the people, whereas he believes himself to be God’s elect. Oh, and he has a penis and she doesn’t. Case closed. I don’t think he’ll be apologizing anytime soon, and certainly not to her.
Still, what a leadership moment. Germany is slowly crawling out from under the shadow of their genocidal past, and having a German pope tacitly condone Holocaust denial does not help. Instead of trying to ignore the issue, or sweep it under the carpet, Merkel, a doctor of quantum chemistry turned political powerhouse, went on the offense.
For taking her righteous indignation public, for rejecting an ugly history and an ugly institution, for real moral leadership, we name Angela Merkel an Honorary Harpy.
*I also would like to give her kudos for this, however un-feminist that may be. Rock on!
Pope Benedict is 75% responsible for my nefound out n proud “hopeful agnosticism.” As in, I certainly hope that the physical isn’t all that there is, but by gum, no one has fucking come close to figuring it out yet, and certainly not a dude who looks like the Emperor from Star Wars and seems more concerned with the contents of my uterus than the contents of a science book.
I do have a lot of respect for Merkel and what she did here, but I think you are a bit unfair to Benedict here–yes, he was in the Hitler Youth, but so were all young German boys of the time–it didn’t necessarily mean that you were a Nazi or came from a Nazi family. By 1935, hardly any other youth organisations existed.
And is the Catholic Church an ugly institution? It’s flawed, yes, and it’s done a lot of ugly things in the past, but it’s also given a lot of people support and tools to get through life and done a lot of charity work, for centuries and centuries.
But I do think Angie is a pretty good feminist role model, although I disagree with a lot of her and her party’s positions. So I’ll support the Honorary Harpy nod!
@Endora: I wouldn’t say that Catholicism or Catholics are ugly, but yes, I do believe the Catholic Church as an institution is ugly as all get out. It has been the single largest purveyor of misogyny, oppression and violent persecution in the Western World for the last 1,000 years. It still does not regard women as spiritually equal to men. In recent days, the Church’s refusal to investigate or punish their clergy for the systemic rape and abuse of children has been completely indefensible–they only addressed it after secular authorities got involved. And yes, while they have been an agent of good when it comes to charitable work, well, they are a Christian church and charity is their job. You don’t get credit for carrying out what your founder intended–you were supposed to be doing that all along.
So yes, while I’m not against the Catholic religion, I’m 100% against the institutional Church.
As for Benedict and the Hitler Youth, yes, I realize that was the only game in town at the time, but his recent actions show that he’s at best conflicted about dealing with the moral and ethical issues of Holocaust denial. And I really, really don’t get that.
@BeckySharper: Well put. I second that motion. But then, I do absolutely hold institutional religions responsible for most of the harm in the world.
@Becky: I do appreciate what you’re saying. I agree that the Church has done a lot of awful crap over time. I guess I don’t think you can judge the entire institution on that though. I don’t turn to any church for support, but a lot of people do, and for a lot of them, the Catholic church has been a source of guidance and support. And ultimately, in Catholicism more than any other religion, the institutional Church and the faith are very bound up in one another (even if many Catholics would like to forget it)–so I think its legacy is more mixed than you are portraying it.
I used to be as anti-Church as you, but oddly enough, Buddhist philosophy has changed my mind about that because it encourages you to look at things from a different standpoint. Once I did that, I realised I couldn’t be as angry with the church, although I still don’t go myself.
That’s not to say they don’t need a lot of reforms, I think they do, but that’s another issue.
As far as Benedict goes–I do hope that it isn’t a sign of Holocaust denial on his part, but as far as I know, he has said categorically that he condemns that position. Maybe accepting Williamson into the Church was supposed to be reaching out to a sinner as Jesus did–in which case, it is actually admirable, if not politically correct. Now, maybe he is an anti-Semite–but I think it is a little premature to say so right now.
On a different note–
By the way, I forgot to introduce myself before the first comment–I’m a new commenter (lurk at Jezebel, but never posted) and I think you are all doing a great job with the site.
Endora — the rehabilitation of Williams was an attempt to reconcile his hyper conservative, anti-Vatican II church with the Roman Catholic Church. You’ll notice Benedict does not offer the same open hand to left wing defectors.
Has anyone else seen the Angela Merkel Barbie? Awesome.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/06/angela-merkel-barbie-doll
@Endora: Hey, welcome!
@JDRegent: Yes, anyone who suggests embracing the lefties in the church–women! liberation theology!–gets ridden out of town on a rail, but the hard-right gets re-integrated despite Holocaust denial. Then again, this is to be expected from a Pope whose most recent job was as head of the Doctrine of the Faith, f.k.a. the Inquisition.
The Angela Merkel Barbie might be awesome if it did not have “implausible anatomical proportions”, but I guess that’s too much to ask from Mattel.
Don’t forget, Merkel also helped spearhead the movement to drop the word ‘Fraulein’ as referring to unmarried women. It was determined that discriminating between women based on marital status, when it came to title or pronoun, is sexist! So now ‘Fraulein’ (which means ‘little woman’) only refers to prepubescent girls, and Frau is used for all adult women.
I keep wishing that they’d do the same thing here, with ‘Ms.’ and ‘Mrs.’…