Decadent world is in the grip of Satan, says Pope

The Daily Telegraph ^ | April 15, 2006 | Malcolm Moore

[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.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

"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".

There are a lot of Freepers out there who should react with quite a bit of hostility to this statement.

When it comes to the distribution of wealth, the Catholic church leans left."

The principle of not saving up wealth for yourself comes from Jesus. He spoke of the wealthy man who tore down his barns to build more, because he didn't have space to store all his wealth. Then he died. We are to live for the next life rather than this one.

The real dispute is the solution to this natural human problem of greed. Enforcing genorosity by confiscating wealth is not the answer--it merely redirects greed to the political realm so you can take as much as possible from the public trough.

The answer is a change of the human heart. This only comes through preaching the gospel of Jesus and the action of the Holy Spirit.

[Pyro7480]

Shall I call you "knee-jerk-bot" because you disagree with what the Pope says, and jump to conclusions about what his solution to the problem is? I'll quote from the encyclical "Divini Redemptoris," written in 1937, by Pope Pius XI. "With reference to Communism, Our Venerable Predecessor, Pius IX, of holy memory, as early as 1846 pronounced a solemn condemnation, which he confirmed in the words of the Syllabus directed against "that infamous doctrine of so-called Communism which is absolutely contrary to the natural law itself, and if once adopted would utterly destroy the rights, property and possessions of all men, and even society itself."

[SaltyJoe]

I've heard of this "wealth" of the Church.

Let's say I have a cartoon artist make a picture of someone famous. I save that picture for a few centuries. Yes, I can do this because I've reversed engineered Doc. Brown's flux capacity to travel into the future. Now that silly cartoon we were talking about has got to have accumulated some wealth, right?

What about a black velvet painting of Elvis? Sure it's tacky and can only hang in a closet, or a bathroom if your lucky, but come 3 centuries or more from when it was created, that's got to have wealth too...right?

Why does Satan assign so much wealth to the Catholic Church? It's because the Sacraments are LIFE ITSELF. This is wealth the devil will never possess, yet he'll cunningly rob souls of such wealth. All other wealth that the Church is accused of possessing is wealth that the accuser (and remember, "Satan" means "Accuser") has assigned by the economic rule of supply and demand.

Thus, if Church sits on high valued property, it becomes high valued property because someone else finds it desirable.

If the Church has high valued art (religious of course) it's because someone else finds it desirable. What is the secular world going to do with a religious painting anyway? Venerate it?

The assigned wealth placed upon the Vatican has been placed to such an astronomical figure that I bet the Pope has to burn his turds less shocked Catholics find it being sold on e-bay.



Behold, what this man holds over his head is the Most Valuable One of All, Who's wealth is more than the entire world and entire history of the world's wealth combined.

[freedumb2003]

I agree with what you said earler.

I am letting you know what THIS Pope said.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Pope Benedict XVI has every right and duty to preach to his flock, thank you very much.

Right. It's his job and duty as Vicar of Christ on earth and successor to St. Peter.

[technochick99]

There are a lot of Freepers out there who should react with quite a bit of hostility to this statement.

Or, more likely, he is tlaking about the totalitarian governments (made up of greedy people) who plunder the wealth of their economies. I think he means someplace more like Zimbabwe. This Pope is not a fool.

[technochick99]

And last year as Cardinal, he mentioned that very thing - about the rot and filth surrounding the Church.

[onyx]

BUMP. Thanks.
A blessed and happy Easter to you and your family.

[onyx]

Thank you, Salty Joe.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Did you see Channel 4 News reporting the Pope's attack on the genetic engineering of humans as an attack on science?

That channel is getting worse...

[John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?]

What about sell everything and give it to the poor that is what Christ told the rich young ruler?

[BigSkyFreeper]

A blessed and happy Easter to you and your family.

A Blessed Easter to your and your family too.

:)

[BigSkyFreeper]

Two words regardless of how you feel about the Roman Church.
He's right.

I'm not even Catholic (I'm Protestant actually) and I agree with the Pope.

[John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?]

Then the Mega church need to kick in some too.

[John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?]

So what are the liquid assets of the Church?

[onyx]

Lead by example... give your computer to the poor.

[John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?]

Is this a blessing or a curse?

I could say I hope you don't ever need the help of those snake handleing heritics. Now make sure you ask any time you need help to see if they are part of the one true church before you get anything from them.

[Almondjoy]

If you truely believe that then you are contributing to the problem.

Greed is a horrible thing.. it is better to be poor than to be rich.

And yes.. business people create economic activity. However when certain CEO's get paid 51 million a year for basically doing nothing.. that is greed.. and the world is worse off for it.

[Almondjoy]

Buying food for the hungry I'm sure is a blackhole in your world.

[AnAmericanMother]

Judas suggested selling a precious object and giving the proceeds to the poor instead of honoring Christ with it . . .

. . . you'll find it in John 12.