A reader writes:
In discussing Thiessen's disgusting use of the Church to defend the Bush/Cheney torture regime, please revisit the case of Cardinal Mindszenty in Hungary. Mindszenty's treatment was in many respects identical to American enhanced interrogation techniques: hooding, humiliation (he was forced to wear a clown suit), drugging, sleep deprivation, etc. Pius XII was so appalled by Mindszenty's torture that he wrote an apostolic letter - Acerrimo Moerore - condemning it. Pius went on to excommunicate those involved in the torture. Mindszenty was beatified by John Paul and is being considered for canonization by Benedict.
It is moral relativism for National Review to condemn torture in one case (as they did with Mindszenty) and not with our current torture regime. Where are the Catholics?
CatholicCulture.org has more on Mindszenty's detention and torture. National Review, alas, sold its soul to the Cheney machine and the theo-conservative Republican party project a long, long time ago.
I notice that the current Pope, in close league with American theocons like the late Neuhaus and George and Weigel, never uttered a word about torture in his meeting with president Bush. He has never specifically singled out the torture endorsed by his American political allies. He has found time to denounce airport body scans, however, because they invade and violate "the primacy of the human person.”
But this, directly authorized by president Bush, somehow slipped his notice:
(Death mask of Mindszenty from here)