Posted on 03/02/2005 1:44:16 PM PST by NYer
New York, Mar. 01 (CNA/CWNews.com) - William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, has said Newsweek magazine should "pull the plug" on columnist Christopher Dickey after Dickey suggested in an article that Pope John Paul II (bio - news) continues to impose his will on the Catholic Church by his "stubborn" will to live.
Dickey's article in the "Periscope" section of the March 7 edition of Newsweek is titled "He Has Willpower-- But No 'Living Will.'"
Dickey said, "Even as the aged pope's body shuts down in the late stages of Parkinson's disease, his will to live-- and to impose his will on the Roman Catholic faithful-- remains as stubborn as ever." He later writes that if the Pope were to slip into a coma, "Could anyone-- would anyone-- pull the plug?"
"When presidents like Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt continue in office despite poor health, they are regarded as courageous, even heroic," Donohue said, pointing out the contradictions. "What is really astonishing-- and maybe Dickey could address this-- is the extent to which this dictatorial pope is loved the world over."
Catholic Ping - Come home for Easter and experience God’s merciful love. Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Ping!
Well that is the job description isn't it?
He leave the impression that the Catholic faithful would immediately change everything if this one frail man would stop standing in the way.
I would bet this same writer abhors the removal of Saddam!.
Such a compassionate lot.....
Not even close. Ever heard the word "Vicar" before?
God will punch his time clock at the end.
Dickey played a major role in Newsweek's coverage of the 1991 Gulf War, particularly in explaining the Arab point of view. He lives in Paris.
******
Freedom’s Just Another Word
Looking ahead to four more years of snatching defeat from victory in Iraq
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Christopher Dickey
Newsweek
Updated: 3:32 p.m. ET Sept. 29, 2004
Sept. 29 - I can tell you the week the United States lost the war in Iraq. It was 18 months ago. Baghdad had fallen with almost no resistance. The dictator Saddam Hussein had fled. A U.S. Marine draped an American flag over the tyrant’s statue and then Symbolic Saddam was dragged to the ground, proclaiming Iraq’s freedom with a photo op.
Freedom. What could that mean to Iraqis? Many things. What did it mean? Looting. Baghdad, which surrendered virtually intact, was soon torn apart by mobs of scavengers sacking government buildings, pillaging the great museums, ransacking the struggling hospitals, vivisecting the electrical guts of the national infrastructure just to strip copper from the wiring. Meanwhile the American soldiers on the scene stood by, and watched, and did nothing, because nobody told them to do otherwise and, anyway, there weren’t enough of them on the ground to impose order.
When asked that week about the chaos sweeping Baghdad’s streets, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had a simple explanation. “Freedom’s untidy,” he said. “Free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things, and that's what's going to happen here.”
Iraqis are still waiting for that last part, and their hopes are fading by the day.
The Pope is also traditionally known as "the Servant of the Servants of God."
He is staying the course because he believes that God has called on him to suffer this pain, not because he is a mean old tyrant keeping the dissidents out of power.
I don't think we should let Newsweak vote in the next papal election.
Christopher Dickey, Middle East editor of Newsweek, spoke to NPR...
Now, in the summer of 2004 we are in much greater danger. Because, by pushing too far, by rushing into the war, and it's still not clear what the agenda was for this war. Why were we in such a rush in March of 2003 to go to war? Was it because Saddam was refusing to cooperate? It wasn't up to the United States to determine that—the terms of the resolution were clear. It was up to Hans Blix to say, "He is in material breach again, and we will go to the Security Council." We couldn't wait for that. We had to go to war I think probably because of the administration's concern about the domestic political agenda.
http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~vgg/rc/aplgtc/hahn/m1/sctcnv.html
A article concerning Catholic Tradition and Beliefs
Amen to that.
I’m wondering if maybe Polish version of Newsweek using similar arguments or maybe they are afraid of something... Anyway I don’t read it and I see that I’m losing nothing. Probably the best Pope for author would be gay with pro-abortion views, in the name of tolerance and worldwide peace of course.
At times I'd come out and read sections to Kimberly and say, "Hear this, name the author." Because she was a theologian in a sense, and she was so busy with raising children that she really didn't have as much energy. But she would sit there listening in, and I would say, "Who do you think that was?" She said, "Wow! That sounds like one of your sermons down in Virginia. Oh, I miss those so much." I said, "That was Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes. That was the Catholic Church." She said, "Scott, I don't want to hear that." I said, "Kimberly, this stuff about liturgy is so exciting. I'm not certain, but I think God might be calling us to become Episcopalians." It's a halfway house. She looked at me and her eyes filled up with tears and she said, "Episcopalian!" She said, "I'm a Presbyterian, my father's a Presbyterian minister, my uncle's a Presbyterian minister, my husband was a Presbyterian minister, my brother wants to be one, and I thought about it myself. I don't want to be Episcopalian." She felt so abandoned at this moment, so betrayed.
I remember that because a few months later after reading a lot more, one night I came out and said, "Kimberly, I'm not sure, but I'm beginning to think that God might be calling me to become a Roman Catholic." This look of desperation came over her. She said, "Couldn't we become Episcopalians?
We shouldn't have let "Newsweak" vote in the last election either. I gave away my subscription some months before the election, and they are already begging me to come back, for cheap. Clue? They would rather give away their dribble than charge more for printing what the majority wants to read, e.g., some truth here.
It's hard to believe that the Pope and Mr. (Dickey) live in the same world.
Not to guys like Dickey. Liberals. They'll tell you how you're wrong, how to live and when to die.
Dickey just can't stand the fact he's being ignored.
The Pope's vast intellect and spirit will live on for generations. Who will remember his critics?
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