Posted on 11/11/2004 7:16:53 AM PST by SJackson
The Vatican has praised Yasser Arafat as a charismatic leader who struggled to win independence for his people, and repeated its support of a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Pope John Paul, who last met Arafat in 2001, retreated into private prayer when he was told of the death of the Palestinian leader earlier on Thursday in Paris, a Vatican source said.
The Pope, who made a historic trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2000, sent a message saying he was particularly close to the Palestinian people "in this hour of sadness".
The 84-year-old Pope's message said he prayed that the "star of harmony" would soon bring peace to the Holy Land and that both Israelis and Palestinians could live "reconciled among themselves as two independent and sovereign states".
Earlier, a statement by the Vatican's chief spokesman called Mr Arafat the "illustrious deceased" and asked God to grant eternal rest to his soul.
"The Holy See joins the pain of the Palestinian people for the passing of President Yasser Arafat. He was a leader of great charisma who loved his people and tried to guide them towards national independence," said the statement by chief spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.
The official statement was bound to displease Israel because it made no mention of militant attacks, which the Jewish state blamed on Mr Arafat and insists must stop before the stalled peace process can get back on track.
In recent years the Vatican continued to recognise Mr Arafat as the legitimate leader of the Palestinians after Washington and Israel had written him off.
But Vatican officials privately criticised him for what one called "jumping off the peace train".
"There is no doubt that he was a towering figure for his people but his great mistake was not to sign on at Camp David," a senior Vatican prelate told Reuters.
"That was a great failure and a lot of problems stemmed from that," he said. "He missed his date with history."
At a US-brokered a peace summit in 2000 both sides came close to a final accord that would have established an independent Palestinian state, but the talks broke down over the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
Washington and Israel blamed Mr Arafat for the failure.
Over the past four years, the Vatican's improvement in relations with the Palestinian Authority coincided with a deterioration of relations with Israel.
The Pope repeatedly criticised Israeli incursions into Palestinian territories and last November, the Vatican was shocked when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to Rome for several days but did not ask to see the Pope.
I feel their pain? I guess the next thing is Clinton will become pope.
I am so humiliated by my faith in the Catholic church...we are total pansies.
How ironic is it that they'll criticize Bush for the war on terror, but praise Arafat
Have you seen this? Vatican equates anti-zionism with antisemitism.
Sort of like John Kerry, the Vatican's diplomacy takes both sides of every issue when it comes to prudential judgements, ie matters that are not of doctrine or dogma.
Ask not what your God can do for you, but what you can do for God's children?
Time for the Vatican to be a peace maker not a side taker!
Just upholds my view that the Vatican is morally bankrupt. Will he morn Saddam's execution too? Did he mourn the Iotola Khomani's death?
Please, do enlighten us. What is the difference in getting prayed out of Purgatory and the way to "get out of hell?"
Please explain. Why do you think the Vatican has "taken sides" and what would "being a peace maker" entail?
And I still haven't received from anyone an answer to what is unChristian about expressing sympathy to the grieving and desiring peace.
SD
"Probably a poor translation. I once heard this old Italian saying during a sermon at mass once, "the translator is a liar"."
The old Italian saying, in Italian, is "Tradutore, Trattitore" (I think) which means, "Translator, Traitor". The Italians, who gave the world Machiavelli, are very familiar with the concept of a translator misrepresenting the facts for some nefarious end.
Chill. The Pope knows what he's doing.
None of it. I’d say describing Arafat as a charismatic leader who struggled to win independence and a towering figure for his people is off base politically, though certainly not un-Christian either
Of course I admit I think Christianity would be better off with Bethlehem on Israel’s side of the wall rather than Arafat’s too.
There is no way to "get out of hell." That's one big difference.
After we die, we are juedged. If we are found lacking we get thrown into hell and that's the end of that.
If we are holy and pure and without any attachment to sin in our lives, we enter Heaven directly.
If we are without unrepented mortal sin and yet retain some impurity, some attachment to sin, we undergo a cleansing process which enables us to enter God's presence. Nothing impure can enter God's presence.
This process of removing our impurities is called purgation. Anyone undergoing this transformation is destinied for Heaven. They have been judged and found to be a saint.
SD
I guess it depends on whether you think Jesus meant for us to love our enemies, or if He was just bluffing.
None of us is worthy for eternal life.
SD
"YES! (Don't have much faith in their ability to attack, but I wouldn't want to be the assassins running up against them...)"
People who got stopped while attempting to shoot the Pope - Zero
People who shot the Pope - One
Not a great batting average so far ...
What scripture talks about that? I've read the whole thing and I don't remember that at all. (I'm being serious here. Don't take that as sarcasm because it isn't meant that way.)
[Blue Scourge]
> I'm very disappointed in the Vatican on this one. Perhaps
> some of the Catholics here can enlighten me as to why the
> Vatican seems to keep ending up on the wrongside of alot of
> events lately.
SD covered this one thoroughly, but here's my $0.02 worth:
I'm not terribly thrilled at the vigor behind the Vatican's eulogy of Arafat (though I *do* harbor doubts about the translation of the word "illustrious... either it's a mistake, or they're using it in the original, "pure" definition of "highly visible and representative of a cause"). But the Holy Father knows that Arafat (monstrous though his consistent actions were) still has a soul, created by God, and that it would not be a cause for rejoicing to see ANYONE damned to Hell. Of *course* the Holy Father is going to pray for Arafat's soul... but this "sound byte" rips the Church's views to shreds, by its very brevity.
The Church holds that any deceased person will face God, and will be made aware of everything they've done--right, wrong, immediate, remote, or what-have-you. Those who are saved will know--FULLY--the horror they've committed by their sins, and they will grieve fully. In Purgatory (if it's necessary for that individual), they will expiate their wrongs by terrible suffering and by their honest, new-found grief. It's no bad reflection on the Holy Father, who knows the value of souls far better than most, to pray that even this twisted child of God has a chance to be saved.
If Arafat is damned, then he's damned. It's understandable for us to long for justice to be done... and it will be done. But it's not right fo anyone to wish ill on another. Arafat was a twisted, pathetic little man who hapened to be fed an ideology of hate--from the baby bottle, on up. He happened to ascend to a position where his twistedness caused horrible suffering, and enabled him to inspire horrendous crimes. But we do not fight even this pathetic flesh and blood (of Arafat); we fight principalities and powers of darkness (cf. Ephesians 6). We should not wish the eternal destruction of their poor, wretched, evil-infected prisoners of war, such as Arafat.
Pray for the safety of Israel. Fight those who do evil, and kill them if necessary; but do not stain yourself with the sin of wishing evil on another.
Considering the intended audience is the Pali people, saying bad things about their deceased leader would not be very smart. The Pope always, always wants to build bridges.
SD
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