Get stuffed.
This Pope was a warrior against Communism, even took a bullet in that fight. You have got NO RIGHT to disrespect a man who's done so much good.
They did not control Hitler. They did not protect altar boys. This is a worldly function that the Vatican cannot perform.
It's the Pope's job is to tell everyone to let their enemies slap them on the cheek and take their clothes and smile, but it isn't the American way.
After you give all your money to the poor and become a missionary for Christ, you can take the moral high ground.
Until then, I reserve my right to be cynical about organizatons that call on US to give away our treasure while holding onto theirs and call on US to let megalomaniac dictators bomb and nuke us without trying to prevent it.
While I appreciate this Pope's fight against an oppressive socialist regime in his own native country, I am disappointed and dismayed by his appeasement of a more remote, but just as oppressive socialist regime.
I disagree with the notion that the Pope should be granted immunity from due criticism just because he was an anti-Communist. The enemy of my enemy is not automatically my friend. If we applied that logic, we would have to honor Hitler as a warrior against Communism--AND, at the same time, we would have to honor Stalin as a warrior against the Third Reich!
That said, I don't think we should look upon this Pope as a bad man--rather, we should understand that he is a well-meaning old gentleman who is, unfortunately, rather out of touch with reality, thanks mostly to the leftist European media. The U.S. administration should try to enlighten him and get him on our side.
BA: "Time and again, eh? Give us four or five examples, then."
JP's against anyone who may be pro-Israel - the heart of American foreign policy in the Middle-East. He has publicly declared on numerous occasions his shameful support of the blood lust (Jewish) murderer Arafat who praised children strapped with bombs who are driven by his hateful rhetoric to murder the children of Israel.
Why do you demand examples from others that are available to you on the internet. JPII has never been a friend to America, or that which he pretends to represent. That it's suggested he is now supporting another hater of Israel is no surprise. It's a disgrace.
I am including a few examples of JP's anti-USA and anti-Israel positions to refresh your memory :
The Palestinian National Covenant, Article 15:
"The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national (qawmi) duty and it attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine. Absolute responsibility for this falls upon the Arab nation - peoples and governments - with the Arab people of Palestine in the vanguard. Accordingly, the Arab nation must mobilize all its military, human, moral, and spiritual capabilities to participate actively with the Palestinian people in the liberation of Palestine. It must, particularly in the phase of the armed Palestinian revolution, offer and furnish the Palestinian people with all possible help, and material and human support, and make available to them the means and opportunities that will enable them to continue to carry out their leading role in the armed revolution, until they liberate their homeland.
Holy See has always recognized Palestinians' right to a homeland (in Israel)
"....No one can ignore how much the Palestinian people have had to suffer in recent decades. Your torment is before the eyes of the world. And it has gone on too long." -- JPII
The Palestinian National Covenant, Article 19:
The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal, regardless of the passage of time, because they were contrary to the will of the Palestinian people and to their natural right in their homeland, and inconsistent with the principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations, particularly the right to self-determination.
The Palestinian National Covenant,Article 20:
The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and void. Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong.
Dheisheh Refugee ( Read Squarter ) Camp
"Throughout my pontificate I have felt close to the Palestinian people in their sufferings.....The Church, through her social and charitable organizations, will continue to be at your side and to plead your cause before the world." -- JPII
The Palestinian National Covenant, Article 22:
Zionism is a political movement organically associated with international imperialism and antagonistic to all action for liberation and to progressive movements in the world. It is racist and fanatic in its nature, aggressive, expansionist, and colonial in its aims, and fascist in its methods. Israel is the instrument of the Zionist movement, and geographical base for world imperialism placed strategically in the midst of the Arab homeland to combat the hopes of the Arab nation for liberation, unity, and progress. Israel is a constant source of threat vis-a-vis peace in the Middle East and the whole world. Since the liberation of Palestine will destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence and will contribute to the establishment of peace in the Middle East, the Palestinian people look for the support of all the progressive and peaceful forces and urge them all, irrespective of their affiliations and beliefs, to offer the Palestinian people all aid and support in their just struggle for the liberation of their homeland.
In May of 1996 the Holy See with the blessing of John Paul II decreed, "...The part of the City (Jerusalem) militarily occupied in 1967 and subsequently annexed and declared the Capital of the State of Israel, is OCCUPIED TERRITORIES, and all Israeli measures which exceed the power of a belligerent occupant under international law are therefore Null AND VOID. In particular, this same position was expressed, and is still expressed, by Resolution 478 of the United Nations Security Council, adopted on 20 August 1980, which declared the Israeli "basic law" concerning Jerusalem to be "NULL AND VOID"..." ( URGENT CALL FOR A WORLD WIDE CHRISTIAN STAND ON JERUSALEM
Arafat, Pope to sign accord
"....the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, said Pope John Paul II intends to plead, during his visit to Bethlehem next month, for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their occupied land. The Catholic church backs the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland, Sabbah said."
The Palestinian National Covenant, Article 23:
The demand of security and peace, as well as the demand of right and justice, require all states to consider Zionism an illegitimate movement, to outlaw its existence, and to ban its operations, in order that friendly relations among peoples may be preserved, and the loyalty of citizens to their respective homelands safeguarded.
The Palestinian Authority has never rescinded this 'Covenant'.
It he goes to see Bush, I would make him stand in the snow barefoot for three days.
In reality, this Pope is a relentless self promoter who never acted particularly courageously at all. In WWII, he was an actor that did a few underground plays and who was reported to feel really bad about how the Jews in his hometown were treated, but never managed to perform any feat to try and save them. During the Cold War years, he got along very well with his Communist masters, and never really did get embroiled in Polish politics - no one ever could point to resistance activities, no contacts came froward, etc. When he became Pope, he was a symbol to Polish nationalists, but that was about it.
In the meantime, most of his pronouncements have seemed to drip with scorn as to the "materialism" of the West, in particular, the United States.
BULLHORKEY!!!!!!! Maybe he got shot for hidding pedophile priests (didja ever think of that?). I don't take the pathetic pope's word for ANYTHING anymore. The pope stopped communism the way greasy food stops heart disease.