[a freedom-loving italian]

Whoopty-doo. So you've traded your Catholic heritage for filthy lucre.

If that Catholic heritage of ours means that the Pope is the King of the "Papal States" and He is going to do anything in order to retain his TEMPORAL power and in doing so He is going to fight and hamper the Italian secular republic then I don't care much about that...heritage.

But if you're talking about such things as "Love thy neighbor as thyself" or "give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's" then I cherish that heritage.

But in the end my point is that I admire the US Republic which is based on a strictly SECULAR constitution which guarantees every US citizens the right of freedom of religion and also freedom from temporal power of one particular Church. Finally, I think that for the Roman Catholic Church to have a state at all is NOT good for the Church itself, as RCC should be focused on the spiritual life of the people and not on temporal issues like gov't of a state.

Meanwhile, Italians can't be bothered to have children anymore and have embraced the worst aspects of secular hedonism. All the while being invaded by Islamics who have no interest in your secular society at all. I reference what's happening in Holland--that's going to be Italy 20-30 years down the road, pal.

These are all very dramatic problems and I don't have easy solutions. And you're right pointing at a lack of faith as the main cause of all this mess. What I can say for sure is that Italians have a long tradition at being mere CINOs (Catholics in the name only) and Catholic Faith is much more alive in foreign countries. But why is that? Perhaps the fact that we used to have to deal with a very powerful Pope-King has something to do about it...

Cheers

[GipperGal]

If that Catholic heritage of ours means that the Pope is the King of the "Papal States" and He is going to do anything in order to retain his TEMPORAL power and in doing so He is going to fight and hamper the Italian secular republic then I don't care much about that...heritage.

Are you referring to recent history?

[Lion in Winter]

I would be interested in your comments regarding the disturbing pictures of the nuns with the captive children and the nazi/utaschia officials at the concentration camp in Croatia.

We all know that nazis killed many clergy of all types in WWII... including many, many nuns and RC priests as well as those of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Wonder why in Croatia there were any, so-called, RC clergy involved with nazis??? Surely, the Croatians knew that the nazis were the enemy of ALL REAL CHRISTIANS.

I think the nazis were able to find weak links in almost every group by appealing to that groups highest level of hate toward those they found different than themselves.

In the Yugoslavian case, this appears to be just what the nazis were able to achieve. Use racial and religious troubles or differences to get co-operation from certain Croatians.

In the end, the nazis LOST and all Yugoslavia became commie. Another group of Christian haters took over.

Lose, lose situation for all Christians, EOC and RCC. And, for the Jews and Gypsies as well.

What a shame.