The Lying, spying bishop

Stanislaw Wielgus, the new archbishop of Warsaw, has had to resign already. Why? Well, a while back allegations surfaced that he collaborated with the totalitarian communist authorities during the Cold War (basically a puppet government put in by the then Soviet Union) and informed on fellow Poles to the secret police. He denied them but later confirmed that yes, he did deal with them to spy on his fellow Poles, so basically he was a traitor to his own people. Given that a lot of Polish Catholic priests actually stood up for Solidarity (sometimes to their detriment) and the resistance movement it is even more hurtful to a lot of Poles that his sod betrayed his own people to the puppets of a controlling totalitarian state which had effectively controlled Poland since the end of the war. Or to put it another way he is a lying traitor bastard.

Does make you wonder why the Popenfuhrer thought it was a good idea to appoint him to such a senior position, doesn't it? He re-iterated his full support for this odious man just two days ago, after all. Or perhaps Herr Pope cut him some slack because he himself shares a somewhat unfortunate past closeness with an evil totalitarian regime?? Oh dear, he's not been doing well on the PR front since he took office, is he? Boy, he's just lucky JP II isn't still alive or he's be force fed his own mitre.

If the disgraced archbishop has read his Inferno he must be cacking his cassock, since old Dante makes it clearer that the final, deepest circle (the Ninth Circle) of Hell is reserved for betrayers (a lovely scene with a three-headed Satan - sometimes seen as a dark allegory of the Trinity - frozen in ice except for his head, with Judas Iscariot being munched by the centre head). Betrayal is always a horrible thing, if it is on the personal level of someone you trust stabbing you in the back or on the larger scale where somone like Wielgus betraying his own people. But since the entire cornerstone of organised religion is having faith a betrayal like this seems even more of a betrayal. But then again there are always those happy to say yes, sir to those in uniform, regardless of their morality.

"That soul up there which has the greatest punishment," said the Master, "is Judas Iscariot, who has his head within, and plies his legs outside. Of the other two who have their heads down, he who hangs from the black muzzle is Brutus; see how he writhes and says no word; and the other is Cassius, who seems so large-limbed. But the night is rising again, and now we must depart, for we have seen the whole."

Dante's Inferno, Canto XXXIV

Of course, some recent research has indicated that we shouldn't pick on poor old Judas because actually, far from being the betrayer he was the more devoted of Jesus' disciples, even following instructions to 'betray' him so he would be martyred, despite the fact others would not know he had done if for Jesus, effectively sacrificing himself to become the most reviled person in much of history to do what his lord asked of him. Religion, oughta be a law against it sometimes.... Hmm, looking back at the Dante now and his description of how Judas hangs in Satan's mouth, "his head within, and plies his legs outside" also perfectly describes the classic way in which victims are consumed by dinosaurs in old Doug McClure movies, head in the mouth, legs thrashing outside.Gee, never spotted that one before.