Dark Medicine
June 19th 2007 13:34
That phrase of Jesus “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, but to God the things that are God’s” has always caused problems. Very clearly, though, if anything belongs to God for a Catholic, it’s Holy Communion – and of that in Sydney, Cardinal Pell is the arbiter. If the Parliamentary Privileges committee of NSW wishes to turn him into a martyr defending the integrity of the sacraments then there are many glorious precedents. Pell is often pictured on the ABC’s file shot wearing a vestment modeled on that of St Thomas a’Beckett – murdered by King Henry because of his defiance of the King’s claim of authority over the Church. It’s time for Pell to stand his ground – not just for Catholics, but for all of us. This is no time to appear conciliatory. Whatever the wisdom of his initial intervention, the Cardinal cannot step back from confronting what is, after all, just another Star Chamber.
Going back to 390 AD, the Emperor Theodosius was excommunicated by St Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. As a result of his massacre of several thousands of Thessalonians at the Imperial order, Ambrose denied him Holy Communion, writing that if the Emperor came to Church then there would not be a bishop to offer the Mass. Ambrose’s letter to Theodosius is a model of successful, if stern, pastoral care. He cajoled, urged, entreated, exhorted, bullied – and eventually won his case by sheer force of personality. The Emperor came to Church as a penitent, wearing rags and begging prayers in the courtyard.
There are many more recent examples as well. The Lion of Munich, Cardinal von Galen, that city’s aristocratic Archbishop, delivered sermons against the euthanasia of the mentally disabled, practiced by the Nazis. Soldiers at the front were summarily executed for having printed copies of his sermons in their possession. And it’s not just Catholics. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that oft quoted and little read Lutheran theologian, also opposed the Nazi regime, and was hanged for his complicity in the July plot.
And it’s not as if the voices raised against embryonic research are merely from the anti-scientific, God brigade. In the most recent edition of The New Scientist there is a review of a book called Dark Medicine. It details the reservations that scientists in Germany and Japan have exhibited as a consequence of the history of cooperation given by physicians and scientists to those fascist regimes.
Going back to 390 AD, the Emperor Theodosius was excommunicated by St Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. As a result of his massacre of several thousands of Thessalonians at the Imperial order, Ambrose denied him Holy Communion, writing that if the Emperor came to Church then there would not be a bishop to offer the Mass. Ambrose’s letter to Theodosius is a model of successful, if stern, pastoral care. He cajoled, urged, entreated, exhorted, bullied – and eventually won his case by sheer force of personality. The Emperor came to Church as a penitent, wearing rags and begging prayers in the courtyard.
There are many more recent examples as well. The Lion of Munich, Cardinal von Galen, that city’s aristocratic Archbishop, delivered sermons against the euthanasia of the mentally disabled, practiced by the Nazis. Soldiers at the front were summarily executed for having printed copies of his sermons in their possession. And it’s not just Catholics. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that oft quoted and little read Lutheran theologian, also opposed the Nazi regime, and was hanged for his complicity in the July plot.
And it’s not as if the voices raised against embryonic research are merely from the anti-scientific, God brigade. In the most recent edition of The New Scientist there is a review of a book called Dark Medicine. It details the reservations that scientists in Germany and Japan have exhibited as a consequence of the history of cooperation given by physicians and scientists to those fascist regimes.
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