Altlutheraner

[Update, 04/02/2023: Added further reports on Polish blindness.]

The Associated Press reports that, after the fact that John Paul II covered up clergy sex abuse cases was publicly revealed, Poland’s Catholic Church and lawmakers have begun to defend His Hellishness, naming him one of the greatest of their quite worthless people. Some notable excerpts from the AP’s reporting follow:

A heated debate erupted Thursday in parliament debating his legacy.

Government figures, including Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, have strongly defended the late pope as a national hero and the country’s highest moral authority. Leftist politicians seized on allegations that he knowingly protected predator priests, with some calling for John Paul’s name to be taken off street and school names. [Of course, this would be a necessary (if woefully insufficient) step in the right direction.]

On Thursday the lower house of parliament also passed a resolution defending John Paul as the “most outstanding Pole in history,” but many opposition members walked out or abstained from voting.

The resolution praised the late pontiff for “actively supporting the Polish nation in its efforts to regain freedom and independence” [that is, for mixing Church and State] while also strongly condemning “the shameful, negative media campaign based largely [that is, not exclusively] on the materials of the communist apparatus of violence,” against the pope.

On Thursday, the head of the Polish bishops’ conference, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, entered the fray, strongly defending the late pope and appealing to “all people of good will” to not destroy his legacy.…

Gadecki joined some critics in casting doubt on the report’s credibility, as some of the documentation it quoted came from the files of the communist-era secret security service that had been seeking to compromise the church.

“The Polish pope has been a moral yardstick, a teacher of the faith and an intercessor in heaven [in truth, this pope, just like his predecessors, is neither an intercessor nor in heaven, for no “man of lawlessness” will ever enter heaven or pray for its King’s heirs] for millions of Poles,” Gadecki said. “It comes as a shock that attempts are made to discredit John Paul II himself and his legacy, all in the name of concern with truth and good.”

Wojtyla served as archbishop of Krakow from 1964 to 1978, when he became Pope John Paul II. He died in 2005 and was declared a saint in 2014 following a fast-track process.…

While defending John Paul, Gadecki said his “sainthood and greatness” [rather, his iniquity and corruption] don’t mean that he “could not have made mistakes.” [Calling these abominations “mistakes” is simply the idolator’s feeble attempt to limit the damage done to the Roman Antichrist by God’s great providence.] But he also noted that at the time the church and society at large dealt differently with abuse [then, did the pope’s church sin then, or does it sin now? make your choice], and with different regulations. “There was a different social consciousness and customary ways of solving problems,” he said. [Our pseudo-bishop has now given the standard papist defense of all abominations — custom, human traditions, and precedent. God is conspicuously absent.] …

On the main evening TVN24 news, the newscaster said the station was not trying to attack John Paul’s legacy, but sought to give voice to the victims of clerical abuse. [The station is evidently unaware: giving voice to victims must of necessity attack every pope’s legacy.]

John Paul II isn’t the only pope under scrutiny for dealing with predator priests.

His immediate successor, Benedict XVI, who had a much stricter stance [this was indeed how Benedict presented himself] and defrocked hundreds of abusive priests, was faulted for his handling of four cases while he was Munich archbishop by an independent report commissioned by the diocese.

Accusations of having failed to react to cases of abuse by priests in his native Argentina and in Chile, while bishop and then pontiff, have been also addressed to Pope Francis.

[Update, 04/02/2023: Marches for Abusers]

In April, the AP reported the following on marches in Poland defending the late Antichrist:

Participants prayed before marching behind relics of John Paul in the capital, led by a popemobile John Paul had used on his visits to Poland. Some marchers carried photos of John Paul. Since the anniversary fell on Palm Sunday, they also carried pussy willows and other tree branches, which is a Roman Catholic tradition on the Sunday before Easter. …

Many Polish Catholics see both investigations as an attack on the legacy of a man revered in Poland as one of the greatest figures in the nation’s history and also venerated as a saint by Catholics worldwide thanks to the Vatican’s fast-track canonization after his 2005 death. …

The government has called the documentary an attack on the nation’s identity and ideals by the liberal political opposition. That is a view that resonates in a country where a large majority still consider John Paul a moral authority, and the ruling Law and Justice party as gotten an apparent boost as its leaders campaign.

Several top officials joined the marches, including the defense minister and the head of the constitutional court, according to commercial broadcaster Polsat News. …

In Warsaw, some marchers carried Polish national flags and the flag of Solidarity, the trade union and freedom movement whose creation was inspired by John Paul after he was elected pope in 1978. …

Polish authorities also marked the anniversary by offering passengers on some state railway rides free cream-filled pastries that are now famous because John Paul loved to eat them. The freebies inspired mockery and criticism on social media, with some saying the state should not be spending taxpayer money to hand out “papal” pastries.