the day of temporary glory … the day of Hosanna, the day followed by Good Friday and “crucify him!!!”
“Remember the word that I said unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin.” John 15: 20-22
For last few weeks media has been reporting intensely on the response of the Holy See and the Pope to the painful scandal of sexual abuse committed by priests in several countries. It is terribly tragic news, which saddens us profoundly as children of the Church. After this news offensive, some Catholics are weary and, I admit, so are we all. It seems to have become the only topic out there.
However, we cannot allow these atrocious crimes to make us forget the hundreds of thousands of men and women, the countless priests, men and women religious -- the great majority -- who day by day give their lives to God and to neighbour in so many hospitals, schools, parishes and missions. Today many of them are unjustly associated with the scandals because of superficial reporting.
The Pope paid homage "to all those who in silence, not with words but with deeds, strive to practice this evangelical law of love that propels the world forward. There are so many of them all around but they rarely hit the headlines. They are men and women of all ages, who have realized that it is not worth condemning, complaining or accusing; that it is better to respond to evil by doing good."
Pope Benedict is under sustained assault by the enemies of the moral principles of the Catholic Church. Yes, many bishops have been severely negligent about past sexual abuse incidents and need to be held personally accountable. Nothing wrong with that public campaign. However, the Holy Father is not one of those.
It cannot be a coincidence that this is occurring so soon after the health care battle when the Catholic Church stood against the Democrat anti-life factions and Catholic Church dissidents who are becoming very emboldened in their opposition to the authority of the Pope and those bishops in union with him.
They are enraged over the Church's unwillingness to bend on life and homosexuality and enraged over the new, more faithful translation of the liturgy, the Pope's welcoming into the Church of traditional and morally conservative Anglicans, his encouragement of the more traditional liturgies, the intensified questioning of the Catholicity of Catholic universities and his increasingly strong actions against dissent and moral corruption among the clergy and religious nuns and brothers. They fear that all their gains from the fraudulent "Spirit of Vatican II" revolution within the Church may be lost. Pray for Pope Benedict.
It is obvious to all with a balanced mind that the international media is out to smear the Pope. Why? Because he is the only voice which dares to speak against the evils of today's society: abortion, contraception, euthanasia, divorce, you name it. He is the only leader who really leads. His words are listened to by all who are genuine and honest. The media wants to bring him down. They cannot stand his words and authority.
Don't you think that this is a simple reaction against the Catholic Church because of the Catholic position in the cases of:
- abortion,
- euthanasia,
- same sex "marriages"
- contraception
and other moral issues?
For me this is an open war against Church which doesn't accept the "modern liberalistic morality
These attacks are precisely because of the church's position on those issues. The liberals attack the church in order to alleviate their deeply hidden feelings of guilt regarding those issues. They know deep down that the church is right and so they like to point a finger and hope to discredit the total position of the church. By proving that the church is "wrong" on this issue they hope to tell their consciences that the church is therefore "wrong" on many similar issues.
War Secularism vs. Christianity
In recent weeks, Europe's secular media has launched what one Vatican official described as an "onslaught" on the Church, and clergy in particular, following continued revelations of clerical sexual abuse in various European countries over the past 50 years.
In the firing line have not only been clergy and bishops, but also Benedict XVI -- particularly in parts of the American, Italian, British and German press. The strength and unreasonableness of the criticism prompted Marcello Pera, an atheist philosopher, to write an open letter to the editor of Corriere della Sera last week. Pera an atheist wrote in 2004 a book "Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity and Islam".
In his article Pera wrote, "There is a war going on. It's not just against the person of the Pope, because, on these grounds, it would be impossible. Benedict XVI remains impregnable because of his image, his serenity, his clarity, firmness and doctrine. It's the war against the Catholic Church."
Pera, who is also a senator in the Italian parliament, noted that "the war is between secularism (liberalism) and Christianity." He said secularists know well that "if a fleck of mud lands on a white robe, the Church would be soiled, and by soiling the Church, so too would be the Christian religion. That is why, secularists question, without any evidence, whether the Church as a whole is capable of looking after children, educating them, or treating them in a Catholic hospital.
He warned that this is a "pitched battle of secularism against Christianity," adding that one would have to recall Nazism and Communism to find a similar conflict. The means have changed, but the end is the same: the destruction of religion. And he said it was "incredible" that secular Germany of all countries, while continuing to "beat its chest" over memories of wartime Europe, "forgets and does not understand that democracy itself would be lost if Christianity is again wiped out."
"The destruction of religion then entailed the destruction of reason," Pera wrote. "Today, it won't be secular reason that triumphs, but another kind of barbarism." He then listed what he saw as the various ethical and barbaric violations of today: "It is those who kill a fetus because his life would be detrimental to the 'mental health' of the mother. Those who say that an embryo is a 'clump of cells' good for experiments. It is killing an old man because he doesn't have a family to care for him anymore. It is about those who hasten the end of a child's life because he is no longer conscious and is incurable. It is those who think that Parent A and Parent B are the same as father and mother."
Political, secularist barbarism, he said, will lead to the destruction of Europe because what will be left will be multiculturalism, relativism and pacifism -- a Europe which says that it "mustn't have its own specific identity, but be a container of all identities."
"This war on Christianity would not be so dangerous if Christians understood it," continued Pera. "Instead, many of them participate in incomprehension." He cited weaknesses in the Church such as theologians "frustrated by the intellectual supremacy" of Benedict XVI; uncertain bishops "who believe any compromise with modernity" is the best way to promote the Christian message; and "cardinals who, in a crisis of faith, begin to suggest that priestly celibacy is not a dogma, and that perhaps it would be better to reconsider."
"The war of the secularists will continue," Pera wrote, "if not because of a Pope like Benedict XVI, who smiles but does not shrink one iota." He ended by calling on all those who understand why the Holy Father remains steadfast to "take the situation in hand" and not to wait "to take your next shot." Those who hide and limit themselves to being merely in empathy with him, he said, "don't understand why it's necessary."
For last few weeks media has been reporting intensely on the response of the Holy See and the Pope to the painful scandal of sexual abuse committed by priests in several countries. It is terribly tragic news, which saddens us profoundly as children of the Church. After this news offensive, some Catholics are weary and, I admit, so are we all. It seems to have become the only topic out there.
However, we cannot allow these atrocious crimes to make us forget the hundreds of thousands of men and women, the countless priests, men and women religious -- the great majority -- who day by day give their lives to God and to neighbour in so many hospitals, schools, parishes and missions. Today many of them are unjustly associated with the scandals because of superficial reporting.
The Pope paid homage "to all those who in silence, not with words but with deeds, strive to practice this evangelical law of love that propels the world forward. There are so many of them all around but they rarely hit the headlines. They are men and women of all ages, who have realized that it is not worth condemning, complaining or accusing; that it is better to respond to evil by doing good."
Pope Benedict is under sustained assault by the enemies of the moral principles of the Catholic Church. Yes, many bishops have been severely negligent about past sexual abuse incidents and need to be held personally accountable. Nothing wrong with that public campaign. However, the Holy Father is not one of those.
It cannot be a coincidence that this is occurring so soon after the health care battle when the Catholic Church stood against the Democrat anti-life factions and Catholic Church dissidents who are becoming very emboldened in their opposition to the authority of the Pope and those bishops in union with him.
They are enraged over the Church's unwillingness to bend on life and homosexuality and enraged over the new, more faithful translation of the liturgy, the Pope's welcoming into the Church of traditional and morally conservative Anglicans, his encouragement of the more traditional liturgies, the intensified questioning of the Catholicity of Catholic universities and his increasingly strong actions against dissent and moral corruption among the clergy and religious nuns and brothers. They fear that all their gains from the fraudulent "Spirit of Vatican II" revolution within the Church may be lost. Pray for Pope Benedict.
It is obvious to all with a balanced mind that the international media is out to smear the Pope. Why? Because he is the only voice which dares to speak against the evils of today's society: abortion, contraception, euthanasia, divorce, you name it. He is the only leader who really leads. His words are listened to by all who are genuine and honest. The media wants to bring him down. They cannot stand his words and authority.
Don't you think that this is a simple reaction against the Catholic Church because of the Catholic position in the cases of:
- abortion,
- euthanasia,
- same sex "marriages"
- contraception
and other moral issues?
For me this is an open war against Church which doesn't accept the "modern liberalistic morality
These attacks are precisely because of the church's position on those issues. The liberals attack the church in order to alleviate their deeply hidden feelings of guilt regarding those issues. They know deep down that the church is right and so they like to point a finger and hope to discredit the total position of the church. By proving that the church is "wrong" on this issue they hope to tell their consciences that the church is therefore "wrong" on many similar issues.
War Secularism vs. Christianity
In recent weeks, Europe's secular media has launched what one Vatican official described as an "onslaught" on the Church, and clergy in particular, following continued revelations of clerical sexual abuse in various European countries over the past 50 years.
In the firing line have not only been clergy and bishops, but also Benedict XVI -- particularly in parts of the American, Italian, British and German press. The strength and unreasonableness of the criticism prompted Marcello Pera, an atheist philosopher, to write an open letter to the editor of Corriere della Sera last week. Pera an atheist wrote in 2004 a book "Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity and Islam".
In his article Pera wrote, "There is a war going on. It's not just against the person of the Pope, because, on these grounds, it would be impossible. Benedict XVI remains impregnable because of his image, his serenity, his clarity, firmness and doctrine. It's the war against the Catholic Church."
Pera, who is also a senator in the Italian parliament, noted that "the war is between secularism (liberalism) and Christianity." He said secularists know well that "if a fleck of mud lands on a white robe, the Church would be soiled, and by soiling the Church, so too would be the Christian religion. That is why, secularists question, without any evidence, whether the Church as a whole is capable of looking after children, educating them, or treating them in a Catholic hospital.
He warned that this is a "pitched battle of secularism against Christianity," adding that one would have to recall Nazism and Communism to find a similar conflict. The means have changed, but the end is the same: the destruction of religion. And he said it was "incredible" that secular Germany of all countries, while continuing to "beat its chest" over memories of wartime Europe, "forgets and does not understand that democracy itself would be lost if Christianity is again wiped out."
"The destruction of religion then entailed the destruction of reason," Pera wrote. "Today, it won't be secular reason that triumphs, but another kind of barbarism." He then listed what he saw as the various ethical and barbaric violations of today: "It is those who kill a fetus because his life would be detrimental to the 'mental health' of the mother. Those who say that an embryo is a 'clump of cells' good for experiments. It is killing an old man because he doesn't have a family to care for him anymore. It is about those who hasten the end of a child's life because he is no longer conscious and is incurable. It is those who think that Parent A and Parent B are the same as father and mother."
Political, secularist barbarism, he said, will lead to the destruction of Europe because what will be left will be multiculturalism, relativism and pacifism -- a Europe which says that it "mustn't have its own specific identity, but be a container of all identities."
"This war on Christianity would not be so dangerous if Christians understood it," continued Pera. "Instead, many of them participate in incomprehension." He cited weaknesses in the Church such as theologians "frustrated by the intellectual supremacy" of Benedict XVI; uncertain bishops "who believe any compromise with modernity" is the best way to promote the Christian message; and "cardinals who, in a crisis of faith, begin to suggest that priestly celibacy is not a dogma, and that perhaps it would be better to reconsider."
"The war of the secularists will continue," Pera wrote, "if not because of a Pope like Benedict XVI, who smiles but does not shrink one iota." He ended by calling on all those who understand why the Holy Father remains steadfast to "take the situation in hand" and not to wait "to take your next shot." Those who hide and limit themselves to being merely in empathy with him, he said, "don't understand why it's necessary."
or English version: REINTRODUCING VIRTUE; WAR AGAINST RELIGION
See also: Mark Mallett - The scandalAccording to Charol Shakeshaft, the researcher of a little-remembered 2004 study prepared for the U.S. Department of Education, "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."
Despite these facts, however, “the sexual abuse story in the global media is almost entirely a Catholic story, in which the Catholic Church is portrayed as the epicenter of the sexual abuse of the young.”
See Charol Shakeshaft report HERE
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