Posted on 05/19/2009 6:36:40 PM PDT by Hilda
Vatican newspaper says Obama sought 'common ground' at Notre Dame
By John Thavis Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican newspaper said U.S. President Barack Obama sought common ground on the divisive issue of abortion in his commencement address at the University of Notre Dame.
The newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said the president also confirmed that pushing for a more liberal abortion law would not be a priority of his administration. The comments came in a L'Osservatore report May 18, the day after Obama spoke at the university in Indiana.
"The search for a common ground: This seems to be the path chosen by the president of the United States, Barack Obama, in facing the delicate question of abortion," the newspaper said.
It said Obama had set aside the "strident tone" of the 2008 political campaign on the abortion issue.
"Yesterday Obama confirmed what he expressed at his 100-day press conference at the White House, when he said that enacting a new law on abortion was not a priority of his administration," it said.
The newspaper, which was reporting on the Notre Dame commencement for the first time, acknowledged the controversy caused by the president's appearance at what it called "the most prestigious Catholic university in the United States."
"Yesterday, too, as could have been predicted, there were protests. But from the podium set up in the basketball arena, the president invited Americans of every faith and ideological conviction to 'work in common effort' to reduce the number of abortions," it said.
The newspaper noted that Obama had called for reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies, facilitating adoption and supporting women who want to carry their babies to term, and that he had also spoken of drafting a "conscience clause" for medical personnel who are morally opposed to participating in abortions.
END
It was called “The Jewish Question.”
You wrote:
“You’ve lost touch with reality.”
No, see, a rational man - like myself - realizes an 83 year old man is not going to fly around the world after a major visit to the Holy Land (which was very important) to handle some other bishops’ problem that was only important for ONE country and ONE people - America and Americans.
“The Popes flock is the universe of Catholics and the most important place the Pope could have been on Sunday was in South Bend, Indiana.”
Oh, please! You are turning a bad moment for American Catholics into the greatest problem in the world? Get a life and come back to reality while you’re at it!
“And if the Pope is not young and healthy enough to tend to his entire flock, then he should give way to somebody younger.”
So, you’re the Holy Spirit now? Let God handle the time when this pope leaves office. When did John Paul II ever do what you’re suggesting? How about Paul VI? How about Pius XII? John XXIII? Pius XI? Pius X? Any pope ever in history?
“In case you hadn’t noticed the secularists are winning and they will continue to win if the leadership of the Catholic Church continues to sit on the sidelines.”
In case you haven’t noticed, the secularists won 500 years ago when they ripped Christendom apart and establsihed states that obviously were going to go secular no matter what because they were OUT OF THE CHURCH.
And guess which pope was able to stop that secularization? Right...none of them. Saints? Nope. They have all failed to change it too. Church councils? They all flopped too when it came to stopping or reversing secularization. God has chosen to allow secularism to continue and He may do so for quite sometime. That is the reality of it and only someone out of touch with reality would suggest that a pope’s trip to Notre Dame would change it.
“Now this is my opinion and I have no problem with you dissenting from it.”
Dissenting from it? Your opinion is not related to reality as it actually exists. There a simple way to show this. Tell mne the name of a pope who succeeded in reversing secularization in America in the last 100 years. Name a saint whose don’t it. Name a council that has succeeded in doing it.
Is that crickets’ chirping I hear? Yeah, I thought so. They all failed. And you failed. And I failed. And all the bishops - every last one of them - failed too. Convenient huh? No matter how hard all of them tried, they all met miserable failure. Total, complete FAILURE. God hasn’t decided to change things yet. It’s just that simple. Popes do not fly into Indiana to solve OUR problems.
“I also have no problem getting nasty if that’s the road you want to travel. Your choice.”
Oooooo, I’m so scared. You might get nasty!? How about getting logical? Threaten getting logical on me all you like. It seems far more unlikely than you being a worthy opponent by “getting nasty”.
Again, just so we both know who is right between us in this little fracas, riddle me this:
Name the pope who flew to the US - EVER - to solve OUR problems. EVER.
Name the saint who flew to the US - EVER - to solve OUR problems. EVER.
Name the council which EVER solved OUR problems in the US Church in the last century. EVER.
You’ll fail. Again. Just like OUR bishops. Again. Get used to it. Saints are made more by failure and soul searching rather than by unmitigated successes.
Like I said, get used to it.
He is the DEVIL! I tuned in for only a few minutes, and he started talking about doubt being the essence of faith. Who talks like that? The SNAKE in the GARDEN, that’s who. Satan tempting Jesus in the desert. It’s HORRIBLE.
Oh yeah, THAT’S not an unrealistic expectation.
Burke is the one to watch. Think of when His Holiness was Josef Cardinal Ratzinger and they called him the Rottweiler of the Vatican. That was his role then. Now he is a King. He has to be more politik. Now Raymond Cardinal Burke is the attack dog. Hmmm... how about an American Pope someday, many years in the future, God willing?
Obama’s golden microphone at Notre Dame was the tool that was used to minimize death, in the most unlikely of places, Notre Dame, Our Lady. As a matter-of-fact, when he walked in, and the audience rose with thunderous applause it chillingly reminded me of the sick similiarity to Christ’s triumphant entry in to Jerusalem and the celebration of Palm Sunday. Just how would the devil cleverly be introduced, mainstreamed and accepted by Christians? Scary, isn’t it?
A rational man occupying space in the year 2009 on planet Gaia understands that electronics can be used to bring the Pope to South Bend without the Pope ever leaving the Vatican. I really shoudn't have to explain that but I'm a generous man.
A live feed from the Pope to the alternate graduation ceremony where young Catholics were defending their faith would have been just the inspiration they needed.
You must have missed Pope John Pauls trip to theu United States where he inspired a generation of faithful Catholic youth to carry his message by defending life. They march every year in Washington to deliver their message to America and the world. But according to you there is no point. We just wait until God takes care of it. Of course I wonder how God feels watching members of his flock ,like you I might add, bowing their head and rather than defending the faith sniveling about how we can't win and shouldn't fight until God takes care of it all.
Your view makes me ill. We, and by we I mean all Catholic faithful from the Pope on down, do not get to sit on the sidelines while Jews, Cambodians and unborn babies are massacred. I'll continue to defend the faith and innocent life.
And you can do whatever it is that you do. Which from what I can tell is absolutely nothing.
Common ground between the abortionists and the pro-life people can only be achieved when the killings are halted and the abortionists abort their pernicious activity. There is no common ground that exists between those who choose the liquidation of human life and those who work to save human life. The abortion clinics might be common ground, but the aborted children move along uncommon ground to meet God, most probably pondering why their respective mothers allowed them to be painfully killed while they were still in the womb.
It's unrealistic for the Pope to address the young Notre Dame graduates defending their faith and the unborn at Notre Dame?
Why is that?
Is it also too much to ask that something more than one third of American Bishops speak out on Obamas radical abortion positions? Are they too busy tending their flocks as well to be bothered with a small Catholic school in Podunk, Indiana?
Our smiling Caesar.
**stake. I am so grateful Pope Benedict is at the helm. **
And I am so grateful that he is appointing orthodox shepherds to fill those vancancies of “Bernanrdin’s boys.”
Pray that more of these good ones are coming from the pen of Pope Benedict!
BTW, good to see you!
More detailed coverage here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2254449/posts
Thanks,you know Salvation,you do a great job for all of us Catholics. I wonder what we’d do without you and NY’er.These are certainly exciting times,ugh!
Of course, that's what he does.
That's not what he says, though, and "in his speech" refers to what he said, obviously.
It’s the official organ, but it does not necessarily agree with the Pope, simply because bureaucracies (such as the Vatican) have a life of their own and often individual members of them come to feel that they are somehow more important than the person or entity that the bureaucracy theoretically serves. This paper came out with something that seemed to undercut the Vatican last year when the Pope was condemning a bill that was before the Italian parliament (relating either to gay marriage or abortion, I don’t recall which).
Theoretically, the Pope can replace people in charge of these different organs of the Vatican, and he has made some changes, not all of them successful. Cdl Bertone, for example, while better and more loyal to the Pope than Sodano was as Vatican Secy of State, simply hasn’t been up to the job and has made some rather confused decisions.
I think a new communications director is needed, since this has been a repeated problem: the Vatican has either communicated badly, or strange mixed messages have been given by people within it who had another agenda. While they are virtually always revised afterwards, the damage is done.
Incidentally, this same issue of the paper had an article on the second page, inside, describing the US bishops’s opposition, praising it, and giving lengthy quotes from Abp Chaput, who was probably the most extremely and most articulately opposed to Obama’s appearance. So I think we’re seeing internal Vatican politics being expressed at L’Osservatore, and it will be interesting to see what if any action the Pope takes on this.
Yes, I think Burke is very important, too. The fact that he discussed this with the Pope (even flying in to meet during the Pope’s trip to the Holy Land) and made some very strong statements makes me think that what he says is very indicative of the mind of the Pope.
I read in Sandro Magister’s La Chiesa that there is a faction at the Vatican that is very pro-Obama, so I think we’re seeing a little power struggle at the moment.
Regarding the issue of Abortion, what possible “common ground” could there be?
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