Posted on 04/15/2006 1:03:31 AM PDT by MadIvan
Wow, the Pope was not light and lively on Good Friday, imagine that. Media idiots.
Anyway, is it just me, or does the Iranian president look uncannily like one of the bad guys from a Chick tract?
But all Benedictines are not Olivetans (this is just a minor congregation which practices the Rule of Benedict) and moreover, Pope Benedict is not a member of the Benedictine Order. So the prophecy, so called, does not apply to him.
save
This pope also deplores the cancerous growth of the state into all areas of human life, a virtual preemption of the corporal acts of mercy, like the education of children and caring for the sick.
The Catholic Church in Dallas "sits on" far fewer bucks than the megachurches in this area.
And yes, I do have a link. It's at
http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/micro/2005/0407vatican.htm
Much of the storied "wealth" of the Catholic Church is in buildings and the land they're built on: churches, schools, hospitals and so forth. These constitute assets, to be sure, but they represent neither luxury nor ready cash, and many are devoted to charitable purposes.
Wow, you said it. And you should see what Isaiah and Jeremiah had to say about wealth and poverty. And that Carpenter, with his offenive comments about rich men and camels. And St. John Chrysostom and St. Ambrose of Milan. Man, they're radicals from way, w-a-a-a-y back.
All this in contrast to the robust Christian charities of historically Protestant areas like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, northern Germany, and England, with their crowded churches, their healthy birthrates, and their wise rejection of socialism.
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Thank you for bringing some truth and common sense to this thread.
I think he deserved to be stripped of his miter according to the "Rite of Degradation of Bishops"; but my interpretation is that, like that wackadoo Archbishop Milingo of Lusaka, he was instead put in a little niche where he can keep his red hat but can't do any harm.
I think I heard that the Church has something like a $300 million dollar deficit.
That was a slap in the face to the victims here in the USA
Yeah. JPII was very critical of the communist system. The KGB tried to kill him. JPII was also very critical of capitalism too. He believed that both systems are doomed to eventual collapse because of their over emphasis on materialism. Yes, maybe Pope Benedict is preparing us for a new dark ages (as some other poster here remarked). Those who have ears to hear and eyes to see know why. The Holy Father is a wise man.
I, too, was distressed to see Cardinal Law given this kind of prominence. If there were still an official "Order of Penitents" with sackcloth and, possibly, symbolic millstones around their necks, he'd have my hearty endorsement to be "prominent" there.
I'd be there too. I still have to go to Confession...
Perhaps. But that isn't necessarily how I read the Pope's comments.
In an open (relatively few barriers to social mobility) and advanced capitalistic society relatively free of public and private corruption, "the accumulation of wealth" really has reference to concentrating and redirecting excess wealth to job and opportunity creating enterprises where greater wealth can be produced. All tend to benefit, although some tend to benefit more than others.
The Pope's denunciation is better targeted at corrupt societies, often of an ostensibly socialist or at least anti-capitalist bent. Think of third-world nations governed by warlords or vicious autocrats who use the misery of their people as bait to entice wealth transfers from first world countries but then steal the largess as fast as it comes across the transom.
Cool is for fools. As is this other garbage.
Peace to you.
Why shouldn't the church lean left? Greed may = capitalism may = propserity in the real world. But it's certainly clear that the only way to be a Christian with money is to give to charity.
Those who accumlate are just as sinful as homosexuals that lie together.
But of course people don't want to talk about that.. people would rather talk about how they are better than others. They dare not look at themselves.
Because the letter without the Spirit is death.
Socialism is death, slavery, anti life, anti-Christ. The only thing more dangerous than atheism is religion without the Spirit -- without the Life ("having a form of godliness").
It just seems so obvious to me. Benedict said, a Christianity which has grown weary of faith has abandoned the Lord. So, all that Church history, without the Lord, is what you're seeing. It's man's pride -- "See? Look how good I am without bothering with God." It could happen to any of us.
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