Sadly, his successor, Benedict the whatever, seems to be even worse. It boggles
the mind, but he apparently criticized JP II for his 'progressive' stance on
certain issues.

Quoting Vicente Navarro <[log in to unmask]>:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> It is not customary for me to write on Church affairs. Most of my work
> is concerned with how to eliminate poverty and reduce social
> inequalities in the world. But I am outraged by the way the U.S. media
> have portrayed the deceased Pope. I am enclosing an article I have
> written recently published in Counterpunch which aims at setting the
> record straight. Needless to say, my influence is remarkably limited,
> since my access to the media is nil. I hope, however, that people
> involved in correcting health and social inequalities will help to
> correct the record.
>
>
> Vincent Navarro
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> John Paul II was a Reactionary Pope
>
>
>
>
>
> John Paul II's opposition to the war in Iraq should not mask his
> reactionary positions on both religious and social issues. Despite his
> portrayal as such in the media, he was no friend of the poor. He opposed
> those who tried to resolve poverty, such as the Latin American
> liberation theology movement. He supported regimes responsible for
> expanding poverty. When he visited Chile during the Pinochet regime, he
> never publicly condemned or criticized that horrible dictatorship. To
> the contrary, when Pinochet was detained in London at the request of the
> Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon--who wanted Pinochet to be tried in Spain
> for the assassination of Spaniards in Chile--John Paul II's Secretary of
> State, Monsignor Soldano, pressured the British government to release
> him.
>
>
>
> John Paul II also openly supported the post-Francoist Popular Party in
> Spain (founded by Fraga Iribarne, Franco's Minister of the Interior, who
> was in charge of the hated political police), and he ever condemned the
> fascist dictatorship that the Spanish Church had supported. Just a few
> weeks before his death, he gave an aggressive speech condemning Spain's
> socialist government, presided over by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero,
> denouncing not only its new legislation on abortion and homosexual
> marriage, but also its progressive economic, fiscal, and even
> environmental policies. John Paul II was, for the most part, a
> profoundly right-wing pope who represented himself as loving the
> poor--by which he meant not eliminating their poverty but increasing
> their numbers.
>
>
>
> Vincent Navarro
>
>
>
>
>
>
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