Religion
Sanders makes a pilgrimage to Rome
By Patrick Martin, 19 April 2016
The Democratic presidential candidate and the Catholic pope are engaged in similar missions: both seek to put a “left” face on deeply reactionary institutions.
Justice Scalia repudiates separation of church and state
By Patrick Martin, 4 January 2016
The Supreme Court justice’s statement that there is no barrier to the US government discriminating in favor of religious believers adds to his litany of bigoted attacks on democratic rights.
A reactionary Congress applauds the Pope
By Patrick Martin, 25 September 2015
The address by Pope Francis to a joint session of Congress was a flagrant violation of the separation of church and state.
The Pope in America
By Tom Carter, 24 September 2015
As he parades through Washington at the center of a massive security operation, the pope looks out on an America whose democracy is in shambles.
German constitutional court increases the power of the church
By Justus Leicht, 29 November 2014
The federal court declared legal the dismissal of the chief doctor of internal medicine at a Catholic hospital on the grounds that the church has the “right of self-determination.”
The “Dirty War” Pope
By Bill Van Auken, 16 March 2013
Placed on the papal throne is a man directly implicated in one of the greatest crimes of the post-World War II era—Argentina’s “Dirty War.”
New pope elected as Catholic Church tries to stem crisis
By Patrick O’Connor, 14 March 2013
The occasion is being used by ruling circles internationally to help ensure the survival of the Church, following the eruption of corruption, sexual abuse, and related scandals.
Pope ends reign amid rising scandals
By Bill Van Auken, 28 February 2013
Joseph Ratzinger made his last appearance as Pope Benedict XVI Wednesday, delivering a farewell oration.
Pope resigns amid deepening crisis for Catholic Church
By Bill Van Auken, 13 February 2013
The resignation of Joseph Ratzinger as head of the Catholic Church provoked expressions of surprise and concern within ruling circles internationally.
Pope creates Australia’s first “saint”
By James Cogan, 26 October 2010
The mediaeval obscurantism pushed by the Catholic Church has been matched by the media’s nauseating nationalism
Catholic Church in crisis over sexual abuse reports
By Dietmar Henning, 15 April 2010
Multiple cases of sexual abuse within the ranks of the Catholic Church have been covered up and suppressed by those in the very highest offices, including the Pope himself.
Atheism in the service of political reaction: A comment on author Sam Harris
By Christie Schaefer, 16 April 2007
In the recent review of Richard Dawkins’ new book, The God Delusion, Joe Kay mentions in passing the author Sam Harris, noting that the idealist standpoint of Harris and some of the other advocates of atheism is often bound up with reactionary political conceptions. (See “Science, religion and society: Richard Dawkins’s God Delusion).
Science, religion and society: Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion
By Joe Kay, 15 March 2007
In his new book, Dawkins has done us a service, if only in making more acceptable the general proposition that religion and science are at odds with each other, and that it is science that should win out.
The Pope and Islam
Ratzinger’s Crusade
By Justus Leicht, 22 September 2006
The Vatican has gone to some lengths to dampen down the controversy following the lecture given by Josef Ratzinger, alias Pope Benedict XVI, at Regensburg University in Germany. Ratzinger’s remarks provoked violent protests by Muslims across the globe.
In their own words: the politics behind the anti-Muslim cartoons
By Barry Grey, 15 February 2006
Common to the statements of virtually all of the pundits and politicians who have come to the defense of the Danish government and Jyllands-Posten in the controversy over the newspaper’s publication of anti-Muslim cartoons is a refusal to consider the political context which gave rise to these ugly and offensive caricatures.
Letters on the anti-Muslim cartoons
15 February 2006
The following is a selection of letters sent to the World Socialist Web Site in response to a number of articles written on the anti-Muslim cartoons published in Denmark.
Death toll mounts in worldwide protests against anti-Muslim cartoons
By Patrick Martin, 8 February 2006
The death toll has reached at least ten in the repression of protests by Muslims angered by the publication in Europe of cartoons defaming the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. Demonstrations have taken place in nearly every country where there is a sizeable number of Muslims, from New Zealand to the United States—where a protest took place Monday after the Philadelphia Inquirer became the first major US daily to reprint the cartoons.
Pope Benedict XVI’s political resume: theocracy and social reaction
By Joseph Kay, 22 April 2005
The selection of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new pope is a clear sign that the Vatican will seek to use its influence to promote the most reactionary political forces within the ruling elites of countries around the world, particularly in Europe.
From “grand inquisitor” to pope: Benedict XVI to head crusade vs. secularism, democracy
By Peter Schwarz, 21 April 2005
With the selection of Josef Ratzinger as the new pope, the Roman Catholic hierarchy has placed at its head a hard-line enforcer of Church dogma, and one of the Vatican’s fiercest opponents of not only Marxism, but liberalism, secularism, science and virtually all things modern.
Letters on the death of Pope John Paul II
13 April 2005
The following is a selection of letters received by the World Socialist Web Site on the death of Pope John Paul II.
Cardinal disgraced in sex-abuse scandal plays prominent role in papal funeral rites
By Patrick Martin, 11 April 2005
Cardinal Bernard F. Law, compelled to step down in disgrace in 2002 as archbishop of Boston because of his role in the cover-up of priests who sexually abused young boys, has been given an honored role in the ceremonies marking the death of Pope John Paul II.
Pope John Paul II: a political obituary
By Marius Heuser and Peter Schwarz, 6 April 2005
Amidst the media barrage depicting Pope John Paul II as a contemporary saint and uncritically presenting the pomp and mysticism of the Vatican’s funeral rites, almost nothing serious can be found about the personality of John Paul II or his real role in contemporary history. The political issues and concerns that dominated the life of Karol Joseph Wojtyla and consumed his 27-year papacy are barely discussed.
Why the epidemic of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church?
By David Walsh, 29 March 2002
Reports and accusations of sexual abuses carried out by Roman Catholic priests against children and teenagers, mostly male, continue to flood the American media. On March 20 a former professional baseball player, Tom Paciorek, and three of his brothers charged a Detroit-area priest with systematically abusing them in the 1960s when they were adolescents. No charges can be laid because the statute of limitations on such crimes expired years ago, but the priest in question, now 63, was immediately removed from his position by Church officials.
Vatican beatifies anti-Semitic Pope
By Peter Reydt, 19 September 2000
The beatification of Pope Pius IX has again revealed the deeply ingrained anti-Semitism within the Catholic Church. Pope Pius IX, who reigned from 1846 to 1878, was one of two former pontiffs beatified by Pope John-Paul II on September 3 in a ceremony attended by thousands of pilgrims in St Peter's Square.
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