Simon Jenkins, in a recent article in the Guardian, shares his view on the Catholic Church that is celebrating the election of a new Pope:
..[The Catholic Church]claims an authority over not just the souls but the lives of millions far beyond the borders of its private Vatican republic. Its followers cannot vote for their rulers, and their rulers show little accountability in return.
The Catholic church is not as intolerant as the fundamentalist Islamic ayatollahs with which it is sometimes compared. Its intolerance is largely towards its own adherents. The west waxes eloquent in denouncing the role of religion in the politics of Muslim states, in the archaic penal codes, the treatment of women and the response to apostasy. It should sometimes examine the religious mote in its own eye.
