Decadent world is in the grip of Satan, says Pope

The Daily Telegraph ^ | April 15, 2006 | Malcolm Moore

[MadIvan]

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.

The Pope celebrates his 79th birthday tomorrow, Easter Sunday.

Mr Allen said he would adopt a lighter tone at an open-air Mass at St Peter's.

[Antoninus]

When it comes to the distribution of wealth, the Catholic church leans left.

Left and right means nothing to a true Catholic. The Church always favors the poor over the rich--probably because Our Savoir did likewise. Don't forget:

"No one can be at the same time a sincere Catholic and a true Socialist." --Pope Pius XI, 1931.

[Antoninus]

When the Pope cleans house then it will be important. Till now Cardinal Law still retains his position at the Vatican.

Cardinal Law does not have a position at the Vatican. He is archpriest of a Roman basilica--he has no say in the governance of the Church at all, save a single vote for the Pope at conclaves. If you're going to spread lies about the Catholic Church, could you at least wait until after Holy Week? Is that too much to ask?

[Antoninus]

Cardinal Law had a prominent role during the funeral of Pope John Paul II. He was quite visible during the choosing of the new pope.

He had one vote out of 130. And somehow, I don't think he voted for the guy who's in there now.

[Antoninus]

I am looking forward to the Pope's statement condemning socialism.

Uh, Pius XI made just such a unequivocal statement in 1931.

John Paul II was instrumental in bringing down the Soviet Union.

What other office in world history, except perhaps the President of the United States, has such a record against Socialism?

[Porterville]

I have so much faith in the Catholic Church. When it comes down to brass tacks, it will be the Catholic Church that will lead the way.

[Antoninus]

If that ain't global Communism, I don't know what is.

I guess you don't know communism. The Pope's exhortation was just that--an exhortation. He doesn't command armies to raid your home and take your goods. He doesn't call on countries to do that either. What he does is exhort the rich to take care of the poor--which is precisely what Christ did. Was Jesus a communist then, too?

[TAdams8591]

"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"."

I agree with the above and EVERY word he is purported to have said in the article. I applaud him for having the courage to say it! : )

[Antoninus]

The worldly assets of the Church have been greatly exaggerated since the time of the Reformation.

Isn't it ironic that they blamed the Church for holding so much worldly wealth, and then their nobles cheerfully plundered it all for themselves.

[diamond6]

Bump for later

[Torie]

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".

I am not a hard line supply sider myself, ala the Wall Street Journal, but doesn't the above have a zero sum game attitude about it? It does not strike me as economics 101. It strikes me as more an an anti-empirical emotional reaction to certain selective scenes flashed out to us from from certain dysfunctional zip codes on the planet, rather than a serious contemplation about how to mitigate such scenes. JMO.

[Antoninus]

The message does not remind me of Ronald Reagan. It reminds me more of the gloom and doom of an old man, kvetching about the paradise lost that never was. JMO.

Pius XII had a negative message too. And after he died, people who were not Catholic complained that he wasn't negative enough and that as a result, he was in effect, a Nazi collaborator.

Pope Benedict XVI is negative because the world as we have known it is in serious peril.

[TAdams8591]

"No I was taught that you don't bitch about a situation unless you are willing to do something about it."

It would seem the Pope has dedicated his life to doing something about many of our social ills including poverty.

[Antoninus]

And it appears that any decent dissent around here is taken as an attack.

If you're going to be an anti-Catholic bigot, could you at least be a literate anti-Catholic bigot?

[Torie]

Not a bad riposte, even if I think inapposite. I like it because it is effective as a debating tool. We would not want the current Pope to be tainted with appeasing evil akin to Nazism. Oh the horror. But I still think he is a pessimist, with a zero sum game perspective, per his comments. I dissent.

[John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?]

“But stripping away the tax exemption, as retribution, is anti speech.”

Ours is a nation of laws, I did not write them but they are there. Saying that stripping away the tax exemption of any entity that violated the law that was written for the tax exempt status is like the people who are violating our laws by crossing the borders, and in turn we as a nation want to enforce our law against the illegal crossing being called a nation of racist by those who have violated our laws makes about as much sense as your argument that enforcing our laws are in some way a retribution.

If we as a nation were to begin to check the legal status of those at the marches, and when finding them to be in violation of our law against illegal immigration and then enforcing that law would be a violation of their right to free speech would be just as baseless as you saying that enforcing the law would be an act of anti speech against an entity that violated the law.

[Torie]

You have a very tight reading of the requirements for qualifying for 501(c)(3) status, which is not supported by current IRS regulations and regulatory rulings, and Tax Court, and federal court precedents. Maybe they have it all wrong, but if they do, the law needs to be changed, to make them all right. Cheers. JMO.

[Minus_The_Bear]

Pope Benedict XVI is negative because the world as we have known it is in serious peril.

Very true, but it is beyond foolish to advocate income inequality as mankind's greatest threat while Islam & violent secularists battle the Church at every point on the globe.

People need real words of strength and wisdom not simple platitudes about how it's awful that people are poor.

[Antoninus]

Accumulating wealth was "robbery" when it "prevented others from living".

I'm a believer in the capitalist system (with certain restraints) and I have no problem with this statement, do you? It's a conditional. "If you accumulated your wealth by preventing others from living, what you did was robbery." It doesn't say, "All private wealth is robbery by definition."

"the division of our world into belts of prosperity and belts of poverty".

I also have no problem with this. It's a statement of fact--have you ever been to a country in the 3rd world (and not a tourist resort)? For many people living in such conditions, the type of government they have is often immaterial to simply surviving another week.

rather than a serious contemplation about how to mitigate such scenes.

The homily on Good Friday is not the place to lay out such a contemplation. Some would argue that it's not the place of the Pope to design a perfect worldly economic system. He's more concerened with the economy of Salvation.

[Antoninus]

People need real words of strength and wisdom not simple platitudes about how it's awful that people are poor.

For those who are in grinding poverty (perhaps 3/5 of the world's population), such platitudes are often their only voice. Would you deny them even this?

[Torie]

Ya, I have a problem with it. The persistence of poverty, has little to do with the manifestation of wealth. The robber barons were never that efficient. It doesn't work that way. And the persistence of wealth, is why the belts of poverty are eroding, in most places that are some semblance of a civil society, with some semblance of property rights, that allow capital to invest without undue risk, and folks to delay gratification, with some expectation of reasonable reward. I don't think the Pope understands that. I don't think he took an economics course. I don't think he understands economics as well as his immediate predecessor. Just a guess.