The "Glory of the Olives" indeed.
Regards, Ivan
Posted on 04/15/2006 1:03:31 AM PDT by 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.
The "Glory of the Olives" indeed.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
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.
I honestly believe this Pope thinks he needs to begin to prepare the church for another dark ages. Given his age, he probably won't have too much time to do it.
I'm waiting for 19 outraged kamikaze Catholics to co-opt the Pope's point of view and use it to justify the ramming of airliners into the Dome of the Rock.
Oh, I'm sorry, we don't engage in that sort of thing, do we?
You know, Michael Savage scares me at times, but tonight, he played a clip of a gay activist speaking out about changing the face of family as if it had to be done and was the natural thing to do and then read this the Pope's word's on the anti-genesis, the desecration of family, of deacadence and pride.
Hearing those two side by side was disturbing.
"9. The Glory of the Olive. The Order of St. Benedict has said this Pope will come from their order. It is interesting that Jesus gave his apocalyptic prophecy about the end of time from the Mount of Olives. This Pope will reign during the beginning of the tribulation Jesus spoke of. The 111th prophesy is "Gloria Olivae" (The Glory of the Olive).
The Order of Saint Benedict has claimed that this pope will come from their ranks. Saint Benedict himself prophesied that before the end of the world his Order, known also as the Olivetans, will triumphantly lead the Catholic Church in its fight against evil."
The Pope is right !!
Way of the Cross at the Colosseum
Led by Benedict XVI
Good Friday 2006
Meditations and Prayers Composed by Archbishop Angelo Comastri,
Vicar General of His Holiness for Vatican City,
President of the Fabric of St. Peter's
Presentation
A Few Words Along the Way
In making the "Way of the Cross," we are struck by the certainty of two things: the destructive power of sin and the healing power of God's Love.
The destructive power of sin: The Bible never tires of repeating that evil is evil because it hurts us: Sin is self-punishment; it carries its own retribution. A few texts of Jeremiah clearly make this point: "They went after worthlessness, and became worthless themselves" (2:5); "your wickedness will punish you, and your apostasies will convict you; know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God; the fear of me is not in you" (2:19); "your crimes have made all this go wrong, your sins have deprived you of all these favors" (5:25).
Isaiah is equally insistent: "Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: because you reject this word, and trust in oppression and deceit, and rely on them; therefore this iniquity shall become for you like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse; its crash comes suddenly, in an instant; its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found for taking fire from the hearth, or dipping up water out of the cistern" (30:12-14). And, voicing the deepest convictions of God's People, the Prophet cries out: "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away" (64:6).
The Prophets likewise denounce the hardness of heart that leads to appalling blindness and prevents us from perceiving the gravity of sin. Let us listen again to Jeremiah: "For from the least to the greatest of them, every one is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, every one deals falsely. They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. They acted shamelessly, they committed abomination, yet they were not ashamed, they did not know how to blush" (6:13-15).
Jesus entered into this history ravaged by sin, and took upon himself the burden and brutality of our sins. When we look upon Jesus, we see clearly the destructive power of sin and the sickness of our human family. Our own sickness! Yours and mine!
Yet -- and this is the second certainty -- Jesus countered our pride with humility; he countered our violence with gentleness; he countered our hatred with the Love that forgives. The Cross is the event which enables God's Love to enter into our history, to draw close to each of us, to become a source of healing and salvation.
Let us never forget: from the beginning of his ministry Jesus had spoken of "his hour" (John 2:4), of the hour "for which he had come" (John 12:27). It was an hour which he joyfully welcomed, when, at the beginning of his Passion, he cried out: "The hour has come!" (John 17:1).
The Church treasures this memory, and in the Creed, after professing that the Son of God "became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man," she goes on to say: "For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried."
For our sake he was crucified! Jesus, at his death, embraced the tragic experience of death as it had been fashioned by our sins; yet, in his death, Jesus filled death itself with Love, he filled it with the presence of God. By Christ's death, death itself was vanquished, for he filled death with the one power capable of canceling the sin that had spawned it: Jesus filled death with Love!
Through faith and baptism, we have access to the death of Christ, to the mystery of the Love by which Christ himself tasted and conquered death ... and this in turn becomes the first step of our journey back to God, a journey which will end at the moment of our own death, a death experienced in Christ and with Christ: in Love!
As you begin this "Way of the Cross," let Mary take you by the hand. Ask her for just a bit of her humility and docility, so that the Love of Christ Crucified will be able to enter your heart and re-create it after God's own Heart.
God bless you on your way!
+ Angelo Comastri
"Way of the Cross" at Colosseum (Part 1)
"Way of the Cross" at Colosseum (Part 2)
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I would hope that most FReepers understand the profound differences between Christian charity and socialism.
I much prefer other articles I read tonight. A Blessed Easter to you, my dear and cherished FRiend.
I'm not sure that such virulent sectarianism is appropriate for Easter weekend, or ever for that matter.
BUMP.
Thank you.
I wonder why almost all the "Catholic" countries have descended so far into socialism? Whether it is France, Spain, Italy or most of the South American countries such as Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, etc , they are just descending into a morass of socialism and under their systems the mass populations suffer, not benefit from this "Christian" charity.
How many bucks is the church sitting on? How much is in the royal treasury? The Pope does not have much room to talk considering the wealth of the Church.
As far as this world it is in the gripe of Satan and why not it belongs to him at this present time. One ray of sun shine is that as in the days of Noe so shall the time be at His return. This world will continue to get darker and darker to the point of the time of the flood where the hart of man was exceedingly wicked.
My thoughts on the matter:
Maybe these countries you name are descending into socialism because they are in the grip of Satan like the Pope says. Yours is a very snide post, especially the last sentence. Am I misunderstanding you, or are you really intending to disparage Catholicism and equate it with socialism? Is Poland descending into socialism? Was the Catholic church complicit in the collectivism and statism that gripped Poland after WWII? Or was the Catholic Church instead instrumental in helping to lift this yoke from the bodies and souls of the Poles? Who was it that told the Poles, in their moment of decision, to "be not afraid"?
Let me guess. A squirt gun pointed at your head forced you to this thread to vent an issue you have with the Church.
Pope Benedict XVI has every right and duty to preach to his flock, thank you very much.
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