Just look at Johnny Damon...
He's ugly, but there's a lady in his life in spite of his terrifying looks.
Maybe the Yankee's uniform helps?
Posted on 04/15/2006 1:03:31 AM PDT by 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.
My tone of sell all and give to the poor?
I guess theses are pretty insightful words especially if one were to worship silver and gold.
Socialism isn't inhertantly bad.. it's people that screw up.. just the same with capitalism.
If has humans we utilizing our God given potentional to farmer, doctor, lawyer, customer service, waitress, or CEO. And all of us applied our work ethic regardless of pay(something God calls on us to do)... then Socialism would be fine. It's because people work for money and will only take certain jobs because of their financial reward that makes Socialism fall apart.
You and I both know that Socialism is founded on ideals.. certain ideals that everyone is created equal and that we should use our talents for the benefit of all.
It is in our inhertant greedy nature that reduces Socialism to what we see in the world.
There's nothing Leftist about the Pope's statement warning against avarice. By "Leftist" I mean COERCIVE. Unbridled greed IS a moral failing and a social evil. It doesn't follow from that warning that government should confiscate honestly- and lawfully-gained wealth.
See Matthew 25:14-30
An across-the-board attack on the concept (as opposed to a legitimate attack on specific applications thereof) is an attack on science.
Unfortunately, Benedict XVI's comments (unless they got garbled along the way) are clearly an example of the former.
What amazing revelation can possibly follow that? The fact that Benedict XVI is... [drum roll] CATHOLIC?
???????????????????????
I don't think so. At least on an international scale.
The statement about some people starving while others live lives of luxury and wealth could have come right from Christ.
Its one thing for individuals to practise charity, which is what I think the Pope is stating, and another for a government to rape its citizens and use their tax dollars to do so.
If it were not for the Catholic Church and Ronald Reagan, the Evil Empire would still be there.
If it returns, its OUR fault for not carrying on the fight.
I like this Pope and I'm a Protestant.
"I wonder why almost all the "Catholic" countries have descended so far into socialism?"
Catholicism has no history of church/state separation. When you mix charity (a responsibility of the church) with the state, it's very easy to get into socialism.
Maybe the Yankee's uniform helps?
Great Graphic!!
I agree. Which I why I wrote some Freepers and not all Freepers. Rampant and unrestrained materialism is not (or at least should not) be part of conservative ideology.
I am against Hummers, for isntance, and other wasteful displays of wealth because they are conspicuous consumption meant to display status and convey reproductive potential through wastefulness.
This is (partly) what the Pope was talking about in terms of decadence. Wasteful consumption is the exact opposite of conservative.
That is exactly what I have found out today. These companies are making millions and billions and the working person is getting less and less and the health insurance is getting higher and higher. Since my husband lost his job 3 years ago we have had it so hard and the insurance is getting higher and higher but the owners live better and better and have a way of letting everyone know it.
ping
In the grip of satan? Hildabeast allready been elected?
Accumulating wealth was "robbery" when it "prevented others from living"
What is there to disagree with? If you follow the rules of our system, gathering wealth does NOT prevent others from living. :)
The Pope's words on poverty and wealth should not be allowed to be misused by those who would accumulate political power over all by buying votes with promises to use government's coercive power to take the earnings of some and transfer them to others. Redistribution of wealth is a tool of totalitarian power, not of liberty and opportunity for all.
The moral philosopher, Adam Smith, in 1776, published "An Inquiry Into The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," and, coincidentally, the American experiment in liberty since 1776 has proven that where the rule of law and the ideas of liberty prevail, individual citizens are more likely to prosper.
Tyranny and poverty, on the other hand, have prevailed in nation after nation where those ideas are ignored or denied.
So would you say the Catholic Church does NOT see a role for the state in economic matters, beyond creating a necessary institutional framework? (such as enforcement of contracts, protection of property, establishing common weights and measures, etc).
I've always been under the impression that the Church advocates something like the social democracies of Europe, a system between free-market capitalism and total state-controlled socialism. I thought they respected the concept of private property, but saw state regulation to achieve social justice as legitimate, even if volutary methods were preferred.
Sometimes issues are overlooked until they hit home. I'm sorry for your situation. We must remember that we cannot legislate morality. Don't wish bad or hope to legislate these people's behavior. Keep your focus on God and the great things he has already provided you and if you need help ask God for that help. If you continue to see and live the positive your life will improve with each and every passing minute.
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