Posted on 01/01/2004 5:55:35 AM PST by HAL9000
VATICAN CITY, Jan 1 (Reuters) - The world needs a "new international order" to solve its conflicts and ensure peace, Pope John Paul said in his New Year's Day address on Thursday.The ghosts of 2003 -- when the United States invaded Iraq without United Nations approval -- dominated the pope's first speech of 2004.
"More than ever we need a new international order which draws on the experience and results of the United Nations," the 83-year-old pontiff said at a mass in St Peter's Basilica.
"An order which is capable of finding adequate solutions to today's problems, based on the dignity of human beings, on integrating all society, on solidarity between rich and poor countries, on the sharing of resources and the extraordinary results of scientific and technological progress," he added.
Speaking at Christendom's largest church, the pope urged people not to lose hope of finding peace in the Holy Land, which the Vatican feels is vital to winning the war on terror.
"The land in which Jesus was born sadly continues to live in a dramatic condition. And in other parts of the world sparks of violence and conflict have not been extinguished either. But we need to persevere and not bow to the temptation of losing hope."
Turning to Africa, the pope paid tribute to his Burundi ambassador, Michael Courtney, killed on Monday in an ambush the army has blamed on rebels who have refused to join a peace process to end a 10-year conflict.
"(He) was tragically killed...while he was going about his mission of promoting dialogue and reconciliation. We pray for him and hope his example and sacrifice will bear the fruits of peace in Burundi and the world," the pope said.
The leader of the world's one billion Catholics, who suffers from Parkinson's disease that makes it difficult for him to talk, seemed alert and read all of his homily in a clear voice.
But it is unclear what 2004 holds for him. For the first time since his election in 1978, the pope enters the new year with no firm plans for travel, although there have been some invitations.
He was particularly weak on his last foreign trip, a visit to Slovakia in September, when aides had to read most of his addresses for him.
It's known as The United States, and its influence is now being felt world-wide, even in places where it was presumed that influence could _never_ reach into.
The resulting peace will be the "Pax Americana".
Don't blame the Pope for some of his opinions, he's an aged and physically troubled man, years past his top powers. In the hindsight of history, Pope John Paul II will be recognized as one of the top five protectors of freedom of the 20th Century.
Cheers!
- John
OK. I didn't pay attention to the byline.
5.56mm
So they made this line up?
"More than ever we need a new international order which draws on the experience and results of the United Nations"Okay, let's contrast the opening of the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution with the preamble of the UN's "Charter":
WHICH documents instill confidence and inspire one to high goals and which one seems to have been drafted by a spineless, wishy-washy and godless commitee?
The Declaration of Independence
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, ...
www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/declaration_transcript.html
THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
We the People of the United States, in Order to
- form a more perfect Union,
- establish Justice,
- insure domestic Tranquility,
- provide for the common defence,
- promote the general Welfare, and
- secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.html
Charter of the United Nations
PREAMBLE
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
- to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
- to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
- to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
- to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
AND FOR THESE ENDS
HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS
- to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
- to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
- to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
- to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.
Sharing even with you, as most American Catholics do, a deep skepticism and disagreement with JP II on these transitory matters of foreign policy, it is necessary yet again to point out that the real motive of your consistent pope-bashing is JP II's unwillingness to adhere to the in-house-revolutionary blatherings of those AmChurchians, like yourself, who dissent on celibacy, support lavender rights in the public square, democracy or anarchy in the pews, and most forms of anti-papal insolence in our times, in spite of burrowing into minor orders as a deacon.
As actual Roman Catholics eagerly await the next bishop to be appointed to the missionary territory of Fort Worth (the Rio Linda of AmChurch) who may restore actual Catholicism to Delaney's museum of curious non-Catholic idiosyncracies, we also eagerly seek your deservedly humble obedience to the Supreme Pontiff and submission to the Teaching Magisterium of the Church without Modernist reservations.
"An order which is capable of finding adequate solutions to today's problems, based on the dignity of human beings, on integrating all society, on solidarity between rich and poor countries, on the sharing of resources and the extraordinary results of scientific and technological progress," he added.
And just how is the Pope proposing to enforce his idea of a non-sovereign, communistic utopia??
Quite frankly, this man is dangerous.
"An order which is capable of finding adequate solutions to today's problems, based on the dignity of human beings, on integrating all society, on solidarity between rich and poor countries, on the sharing of resources and the extraordinary results of scientific and technological progress," he added.
To remind. It was this pope who justified the bombing of Serbs. Rome's daily La Repubblieg, published on 14 August 1993, a front cover illustration of the pope at the top of a minaret calling: "Isus (Warren) Christopher, save us." The Italian Press condemned Pope John Paul for blessing an American air assault on Serb positions and for asking President Clinton to launch it without delay. On 15 August 1993, Roman Catholic priest, Don Albino Bizzotto, founder of the Beati Construttovi di Pace peace and charity orgnization, has assessed the pope's call for air strikes on Bosnian Serbs as 'disappointing' and 'double-dealing. "We cannot understand those who speak about mercy and military intervention at the same time, he said. Fr. Bizzotto went on to say: The pope's behavior is like a leading big power, who tries to cure their hypocrisies and failures with armed interventions."
The war against the Serbs was unjust and immoral. It received no approval from Congress nor from the UN, but our wag-the-dog President Clinton went ahead with his bombing of innocent Serbian civilians. This war was to appease the Muslim world. It was to show them that we were willing to destroy a Christian people in order to prove it.
"I respectfully disagree."
I interpreted the Popes statement to mean it's time to learn from the mistakes of the UN and dissolve it. Not such a bad idea, is it?
Well, I suppose that's one way of interpreting it.
The most obvious way of interpreting what the Pope said is that it is another slap at US unilateralism, which is willing to act when international bodies won't. The Pope knows that, had the US taken his advice, Hussein would still be in power, stuffing his people into shredders.
The Pope wants something to counter the United States and Britain. Surely you see that.
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