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.
Yeah, I know. People ge all torqued up when it comes to their religion. I was just being sarcastic, though.
Christianity and socialism are alike in thinking that the objective of economic activity is to make possible the development of society as a whole. Christianity objects to a highly unequal distribution of wealth and benefits and a lack of social equality without necessarily proposing a program to achieve more social equality. Socialism goes beyond that to espouse collective ownership as a means of creating social equality.
Capitalism, on the other hand, views the most efficient creation of wealth and capital as the objective of economic activity. It is far less concerned with distribution of wealth and social equality.
If you knew anything about Catholic teaching, communism was condemned quite early by the Church.
We can do without Chick's anti-Catholic bilge, thanks.
Don't you believe he was thinking of Robert Mugabe when he said what he did? Me neither.
There are a lot of Freepers out there who should react with quite a bit of hostility to this statement.
It's important to see that Christ's messages always start and end with the individual. There can be no credit given in heaven for charities done in your name by a government, but for which you haven't personally made any effort other than being taxed.
Charitable people make a charitable nation; confiscatory taxation does not. The point is for individuals to live lives of appropriate moderation, sharing excess profits through their own charitable instincts with churches and foundations.
You have another intrpretation of the Pope's words?
That is NOT what he said. When he taked about different parts of the world, he cast it into governmental (and thus political) terms.
Have you ever heard of "Base Communities?" Some years ago, the more radical/socialist side of the Church decided it would be a good thing to take their liberation theology into the villages of Central and South America, as a means of collectivizing them and seeding a revolution against the real meaning of the Gospel.
I attended a music conference in Portland, Oregon, at which this particular brand of "Christianity" was touted to a large and mostly-eager audience of leftist do-gooders and busybodies. I imagine that the concept has had some effect on the Catholics of the region to a point where injecting the Socialist dogma into the process would be a very simple thing. If this isn't the reason, it's at least a very good method of introducing their propaganda to the ignorant.
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That's not the problem. It's that you think there's only one interpretation.
Parse it to mean something other than what it says, like others on this thread are atempting to do.
It means that rich countries are too rich and should give their "excess" to the poor countries.
If that ain't global Communism, I don't know what is. If you want to soften it, then I'll give you "global Socialism."
I don't see the Pope or the priest who wrote the reflections jumping to that conclusion, like you are. The Gospels are full of teachings where Jesus warns people about the danger wealth can create for a person's salvation. There are reasons, other than "greed," why there are these "belts." Corruption and opression are big ones.
"Why shouldn't the church lean left? Greed may = capitalism may = propserity in the real world. But it's certainly clear that the only way to be a Christian with money is to give to charity."
Psssttt... don't tell anyone, but the United States gives more to charity and donates more time to community service than any other developped nation on earth.
As a for instance, Amercans give 6 times more per capita relative to income than than Brits. And it only becomes more striking when you compare American giving to continental Europe or time spent on volunteer activities.
Suffice it to say that I don't consider socialism charitable, either. In socialism, oney that is given is not given as a sacrifice by the giver. It is mandatory, it is done with expectations of reward in other arenas in life, and it is rarely accompanied by other charitable giving or donations. There is no spirit in it.
The article is very negative. The Pope "lashed out" and his prayers were approved because of a "strongly conservative" view.
I will say it again. That is NOT what he said. He put in a global context, which means he has to be talking about countries.
Do I need to invent the word "Pope-Bots" for those of you who are doing verbal origami to make what he said anything other than what it was?
"Cloaked in religious allegory, his words may sound kooky to many, but the message is sound and on-target."
I think you're right. His language is typical of his generation but his message is sound, as you say.
In the case of Mobutu Sese Seko (the ostensibly pro-American communistic ex-dictator of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), this statement is absolutely true. He extorted, stole, and bribed untold millions of dollars from his people and gave them nothing but death, enslavement, and misery in return. Although somewhat extreme, the plight of the Congo under Mobutu exemplifies the evil of dictators and communists everywhere. The Congo does have more than twenty million Catholics.
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