By A J Brewster

Never have I been more upset with any religious institution than I am with the Catholic Church under Pope John Paul II. Know that I have nothing against individual Catholics. The vast majority are great people that contribute positively to society and don't really know what goes on in the halls of the Vatican under the current fascist pope.

My major beef with the Vatican is its inability to adjust to the times. The other day, I was reading an article on the BBC World News website about an investigation that the BBC had done into allegations that catholic missionaries and priests in Africa were telling the indigenous tribesmen that the use of condoms does not protect against the AIDS virus. Some even went so far as to say that condoms actually cause AIDS. While world health organizations are spending mass amounts of resources attempting to educate theses high-risk people, these missionaries are callously undoing all their hard work. How could they be so reckless?

I'll tell you how. Before Karol Woytjla become pope, the Catholic Church had taken some great steps forward since its early days. It no longer burned people for being witches, excommunicated astronomers, or sold indulgences so evil men (and women) could reduce their time in purgatory. With the ordination of John Paul II, any hope of more forward social movement by the Church was dashed. The current pope is ardently against birth control, abortion and homosexuals, alienating many catholic who keep themselves informed of social problems.

Birth control will damn my soul? Give me a break! With the current population explosions in Latin America and parts of Africa (mostly Catholic, by the way), many people are having children that they cannot feed and provide for because the missionaries and priests are following the orders of the Vatican and condemning birth control. In many places, this population boom is putting unsustainable pressure on the ecosystem and the inhabitants' health is suffering as a result.

As much as I hoped to avoid the issue there is a comment that I would like to make concerning the Catholic Church and abortion. In many of the areas mentioned above, abortion is a sin that can and will get a woman excommunicated. In situations of incestual rape, young girls (some as young as 13) are forced to carry their babies to term, or be excommunicated from the church, even when the fetus is a product of rape by a father, brother, or grandfather. Another group that banned abortion and birth control were the Nazis, and we all know how they felt about preserving human life. Incidentally, the Vatican helped Nazi war criminals escape to South America after WWII by hiding them in the Vatican.

As other religious groups are choosing to adapt to the times, the Vatican is refusing to acknowledge that the world is changing and hold onto many archaic beliefs that are harmful to society. The Protestant movements have allowed ministers to marry, women to lead worship, and active homosexuals to become bishops. Maybe the lack of womanly contact has something to do with the number of pedophiles that decide that the Catholic priesthood is for them. I haven't heard anything about Protestant ministers and pastors molesting children in record numbers all over the world, probably because they can have sex with their loving wives instead.

Another reason I have a problem with the Vatican is their stance on divorce. I can understand looking down on someone that gets married right out of high school to someone that they've only been dating for two weeks because “we love each over and I've never met anyone like them before” and then file for divorce after a week because they realized that they are both morons. I'm not talking about those people. They deserve to be scorned by church and society alike. I'm referring to those women and perhaps men who are in either emotionally or physically abusive relationships and want to get out. These people can never get married again as long as they are Catholic. “What about annulment?” proponents of this archaic policy will ask. “What about the children of annulled couples?” I will respond. Do they deserve to be told that they were a mistake? That just doesn't seem right to me.

On a final note, the bread and the wine DO NOT actually turn into the body and the blood, or else people would be getting food poisoning from eating raw meat. Let me reiterate that I have absolutely nothing against Catholicism, priests or individual Catholics. My problem lies with an over-rigid papacy and inflexible Vatican intent upon exercising its power at all costs. I only hope the next pope will take the reform road and re-examine many current papal policies. If not, there will be even more suffering for the Vatican to take responsibility for.