Decadent world is in the grip of Satan, says Pope

Pope Benedict said last night that the world was in the grip of Satan and prayed for mankind to open its eyes to the "filth around us".

At an Easter ceremony that recreated the passage of Jesus Christ to the crucifixion, Benedict XVI lashed out at man's "decadent narcissism".

He said "a slick campaign of propaganda is spreading an inane apologia of evil, a senseless cult of Satan".

The Good Friday service, held at the Colosseum, showed the 14 stages of Christ's suffering and was designed to allow worshippers to share in the agony of Jesus. During the first and final stage, the Pope carried the cross.

The prayers, written by Archbishop Angelo Comastri, the Vatican City's vicar general, were approved by the Pope, and reflected his strongly conservative outlook.

"Surely God is deeply pained by the attack on the family," the Pope said. "Today we seem to be witnessing a kind of anti-Genesis, a counter-plan, a diabolical pride aimed at eliminating the family."

He also expressed fears about genetic modification, and said it was "insane arrogance" to play with the "grammar" of creation.

The meditations were designed to invoke a feeling of man's sinfulness ahead of the dark hours of Easter Saturday. Bodies are "constantly bought and sold on the streets of our cities, on our television channels, in homes that have become like streets," he said.

Accumulating wealth was "robbery" when it "prevented others from living". He deplored "the division of our world into belts of prosperity and belts of poverty".

The Pope said society valued "immorality and selfishness as if they were new heights of sophistication".

The downbeat message echoed the Pope's words at the same ceremony last year, when, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he led the Way of the Cross in place of the ailing Pope John Paul II.

In those meditations, he compared the Church to "a boat about to sink, taking on water on every side". He lamented "how much filth there is in the Church", and said that "a Christianity which has grown weary of faith has abandoned the Lord".

Since his election almost a year ago, the Bavarian-born Pope has surprised many with his gentle public persona. At yesterday's service, however, his ferocity was a reminder of why he was once nicknamed "Cardinal Rottweiler".

John Allen, the author of two books on Pope Benedict, said: "Is this the real Pope Benedict re-emerging? He has projected a very different tone in the last year, but that does not mean that he has changed."

On Thursday, the Pope poured scorn on revelations within the recently published Gospel of Judas, a fourth century text which is sympathetic to Judas Iscariot and whose crumbling fragments claim that Jesus instructed Judas to betray him.

Now I may find womens' natural milk containers attractive enough, but that's my thorn in the flesh to deal with. Implants put a woman's health at risk as well as potentially castrate her ability to nurse children. I don't like implants and fear for those who have them, even for the cosmetic reason of undoing the scars of a mastectomy.

The following type of "genetic engineering" is the perversion of science to attack our nature (and feed lust):

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060413/hl_nm/implants_suicide_dc_1

Breast implants again linked to suicide risk Thu Apr 13, 11:45 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study adds to evidence that while women with breast implants are not at greater risk of breast cancer, they do seem to have an elevated rate of suicide.

The reason for the suicide risk is unclear, but several studies have now come to similar conclusions. Some researchers believe the link is explained by higher rates of depression, anxiety and low self-esteem among women who undergo breast augmentation.

Supporting that theory, one recent study found that women who received cosmetic breast implants were more likely to have a history of psychiatric hospitalization than those who underwent other types of plastic surgery.

Based on such findings, some experts have recommended that women be screened for past and present psychiatric disorders before they receive breast implants.

The current study, published in the journal Epidemiology, included 12,144 U.S. women who'd received breast implants between 1960 and 1988, and 3,614 women who'd undergone other types of cosmetic surgery during the same period.

Researchers compared the two groups' rates of death from various causes over an average of 20 years; the rates in each group were also compared with statistics for women in the general population.

Overall, the study found, women who'd received implants had a lower risk of death from most causes when compared with the general population.

That included a lower risk of dying from breast cancer, a disease that has been a concern among breast implant recipients. Though research has failed to show that the implants contribute to breast cancer development, there is evidence that implants can interfere with mammography screening for breast tumors.

In this study, however, women with implants were only half as likely as those in the general population to die of breast cancer, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Louise A. Brinton of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

Women who'd received implants did, however, have a higher-than-average risk of suicide. And they were more than twice as likely as women who'd had other cosmetic procedures to take their own lives.

Between the two surgery groups, implant recipients were also more likely to die of respiratory cancer or brain cancer. However, few women in either group died of a brain tumor, and it's not clear that there's a cause-and-effect relationship between breast implants and either form of cancer, according to Brinton and her colleagues.

The elevated suicide risk, however, "remains of concern," the researchers conclude.

In an unexpected finding, they note, women with implants were also more likely than those who'd had other cosmetic procedures to die in a car accident. Coupled with the suicide findings, Brinton and her colleagues write, this suggests that some of those traffic deaths were not accidental.

What about sell everything and give it to the poor that is what Christ told the rich young ruler?

The Church is called to be the good steward of the spiritual riches of Christ’s Mystical Body while also exercising a stewardship of her material resources for the temporal and eternal well being of all humanity.

The vast majority of the Church’s property (e.g., churches, schools and hospitals) is specifically dedicated to the service of people, especially the poor.

The Vatican does own property of substantial financial value. The Church could sell these items, but she considers herself the guardian of these treasures for the whole world. She makes them available for pilgrims and tourists to enjoy when visiting such places as St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the various Vatican museums. The Church has also allowed her art holdings to be used in tours to countries including the United States, for those who cannot visit Italy and elsewhere. Revenue obtained by displaying these items is then used to assist the needs of people everywhere.

I love this Pope. Panzer Pope, right on! Go for it. Get militant about the moral relativism that has gripped this world. The more the Pope goes on the attack verbally, the more happy I will be. It's about time wouldn't you say?

Pope JPII was great at building up the membership of the Church and getting young people to participate in it, which is, of course, the future of the Church. Now we need a Pope who is not afraid to speak his mind, and to teach theology and the meaning of moral values to all Catholics and also to the world at large. When the Pope speaks, many in the world listen. This Pope is good with words. He is an excellent speaker. And he sees very clearly what the problems in the world are. He is a very smart man. I am so excited by him, and I hope he lives forever.

I agree, wholeheartedly.

The truth is the truth is the truth. No getting around it. No excuses, no BS. I also loved JPII, but this man is special, also. He knows his time is short, and he isn't wasting time. He has put the homosexual priests on notice, and makes no excuses for them, which I do also admire.

You are right, he is very intelligent, and yet not in our face all of the time with his thoughts; rather, it's just right for me.

We are in a spiritual battle, good versus evil which has been waged here on earth for thousands of years. Pope Benedict recognizes that fact, and has the ability to get down to brass tacks and state the truth.

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