Space Tycoon
04-10-2007, 11:25 PM
I am like this close to becoming a Catholic. If John Paul II could help deflate the Soviet Empire, perhaps Benedict will be instrumental in bringing down the neocons...
Text of Pope Benedict's Easter Speech (http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/08/ap3592209.html)
How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world! Natural calamities and human tragedies that cause innumerable victims and enormous material destruction are not lacking. My thoughts go to recent events in Madagascar, in the Solomon Islands, in Latin America and in other regions of the world. I am thinking of the scourge of hunger, of incurable diseases, of terrorism and kidnapping of people, of the thousand faces of violence, which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons. I look with apprehension at the conditions prevailing in several regions of Africa. In Darfur and in the neighboring countries there is a catastrophic, and sadly to say underestimated, humanitarian situation. In Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo the violence and looting of the past weeks raises fears for the future of the Congolese democratic process and the reconstruction of the country. In Somalia the renewed fighting has driven away the prospect of peace and worsened a regional crisis, especially with regard to the displacement of populations and the traffic of arms. Zimbabwe is in the grip of a grievous crisis and for this reason the Bishops of that country in a recent document indicated prayer and a shared commitment for the common good as the only way forward.
Likewise the population of East Timor stands in need of reconciliation and peace as it prepares to hold important elections. Elsewhere, too, peace is sorely needed: in Sri Lanka only a negotiated solution can put an end to the conflict that causes so much bloodshed; Afghanistan is marked by growing unrest and instability; in the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees. In Lebanon the paralysis of the country's political institutions threatens the role that the country is called to play in the Middle East and puts its future seriously in jeopardy. Finally, I cannot forget the difficulties faced daily by the Christian communities and the exodus of Christians from that blessed Land which is the cradle of our faith.... (continued)
Plus a little commentary (http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10799)from Justin Raimondo:
There is more than a little irony in the evolution of Benedict XVI, widely reviled in the liberal media for all the usual "tolerant" reasons, into the de facto spiritual leader of a global antiwar movement. Surely this baffles the type of trendy, airheaded Left Coast liberal who pores over the Huffington Post and sees the Catholic Church and all its works as somewhere between Halliburton and the Carlyle Group in the hierarchy of bad guys. After all, how could someone who opposes abortion, not to mention the ordination of woman priests, possibly be anything other than malevolent? It's odd that this crowd, which has pretensions to "spirituality," would be so disdainful of religion per se, yet their dogmatic anticlericalism displays an ignorance of history as well as a woeful inattention to recent events. The Catholic Church hierarchy has stood like a rock against the war hysteria that has been sweeping over the West since 9/11. Pope John Paul II opposed the invasion of Iraq and explicitly denounced the Novakian schismatic heresy that revises or denies Catholic just-war theory and would turn the Church into an instrument of Washington's "benevolent global hegemony."
In the heartless, pagan world of the would-be empire-builders who have seized control of the American government and made it the center of evil in the world, power is measured in purely politico-military terms. By these standards, the Pope is utterly powerless, and his pronouncements have no more effect than a nonbinding congressional resolution, perhaps less. (continued)
.
Text of Pope Benedict's Easter Speech (http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/08/ap3592209.html)
How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world! Natural calamities and human tragedies that cause innumerable victims and enormous material destruction are not lacking. My thoughts go to recent events in Madagascar, in the Solomon Islands, in Latin America and in other regions of the world. I am thinking of the scourge of hunger, of incurable diseases, of terrorism and kidnapping of people, of the thousand faces of violence, which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons. I look with apprehension at the conditions prevailing in several regions of Africa. In Darfur and in the neighboring countries there is a catastrophic, and sadly to say underestimated, humanitarian situation. In Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo the violence and looting of the past weeks raises fears for the future of the Congolese democratic process and the reconstruction of the country. In Somalia the renewed fighting has driven away the prospect of peace and worsened a regional crisis, especially with regard to the displacement of populations and the traffic of arms. Zimbabwe is in the grip of a grievous crisis and for this reason the Bishops of that country in a recent document indicated prayer and a shared commitment for the common good as the only way forward.
Likewise the population of East Timor stands in need of reconciliation and peace as it prepares to hold important elections. Elsewhere, too, peace is sorely needed: in Sri Lanka only a negotiated solution can put an end to the conflict that causes so much bloodshed; Afghanistan is marked by growing unrest and instability; in the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees. In Lebanon the paralysis of the country's political institutions threatens the role that the country is called to play in the Middle East and puts its future seriously in jeopardy. Finally, I cannot forget the difficulties faced daily by the Christian communities and the exodus of Christians from that blessed Land which is the cradle of our faith.... (continued)
Plus a little commentary (http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10799)from Justin Raimondo:
There is more than a little irony in the evolution of Benedict XVI, widely reviled in the liberal media for all the usual "tolerant" reasons, into the de facto spiritual leader of a global antiwar movement. Surely this baffles the type of trendy, airheaded Left Coast liberal who pores over the Huffington Post and sees the Catholic Church and all its works as somewhere between Halliburton and the Carlyle Group in the hierarchy of bad guys. After all, how could someone who opposes abortion, not to mention the ordination of woman priests, possibly be anything other than malevolent? It's odd that this crowd, which has pretensions to "spirituality," would be so disdainful of religion per se, yet their dogmatic anticlericalism displays an ignorance of history as well as a woeful inattention to recent events. The Catholic Church hierarchy has stood like a rock against the war hysteria that has been sweeping over the West since 9/11. Pope John Paul II opposed the invasion of Iraq and explicitly denounced the Novakian schismatic heresy that revises or denies Catholic just-war theory and would turn the Church into an instrument of Washington's "benevolent global hegemony."
In the heartless, pagan world of the would-be empire-builders who have seized control of the American government and made it the center of evil in the world, power is measured in purely politico-military terms. By these standards, the Pope is utterly powerless, and his pronouncements have no more effect than a nonbinding congressional resolution, perhaps less. (continued)
.