Vatican and the politics

Social protest against the canonization of Pope Pius XII gave rise to the violent discussion subjected not only to the very person of the saint-to-be but also the whole political activity of the Roman Catholic Church during the centuries of its existence. Not only representatives of the priesthood and professional theologists took part in the debates but also some conspicuous public and state figures, publicists did — long story short, the debate has turned into the widespread public discussion. The most surprising aspect of the story is not the fact that the Polish community is indignant with the future canonization of Pope Pius XII — who had a rather controversial reputation — and his becoming the one of Community of Catholic Saints. It’s almost for the first time when we’re hearing the voices that condemn the political role of the Catholic Church out loud.

For example, Wiesław Jaszczyński, well-known Polish public leader — in 1994-1998 he was the Deputy Health Minister in the government of Jerzy Buzek, today’s chairman of the European parliament — said the following: "No mixture in the world can ever be as dangerous to the humanity as the mix of religion and politics. Just the bloodiest wars and mass murders — including Holocaust — are born out of this mixture. History of the Roman Catholic Church is a striking example of that. During two thousand years of its existence and profound participation in the politics many terrible things happened: Crusades, murderous persecutions of Jews, inquisition, conquer, looting and the forceful conversion of the South America into the Catholicity. Whole sea of blood of innocent people has spilled just because of the fact that they were adherents of a different faith". One could hardly disagree with Jaszczyński - concerning the historical role of Vatican. In the newest history it changed - but only at first glance. Modern wars are still originate from religious issues roused by Vatican, despite all seeming attemps to promote ecumenism...
The article I link here is very long, but it is really worth reading and discussing.
http://www.win.ru/en/win/3504.phtml