Church not a political player, but it must promote human dignity, says Holy Father
Vatican City, Dec 5, 2008 / 10:26 pm (CNA).- Upon receiving the letters of credence from the new ambassador of Argentina to the Holy See this morning, Pope Benedict XVI stressed that the Church seeks “to promote the dignity of human beings and to elevate them for the good of everyone.” He also recalled the 30 year anniversary of the papal intervention to resolve a dispute between Chile and Argentina.
Speaking to the new ambassador Juan Pablo Cafiero, the Pope described Argentina as a “place of profound Christian traditions which have planted and cultivated important customs.”
To demonstrate this, the Holy Father mentioned that the young Mapuche Indian, Blessed Ceferino Namuncura was "a splendid sign of how Christ, Who truly is the Word incarnate, is not foreign to any culture or person; quite the opposite, the answer for which all cultures long in their hearts is what gives them their true identity, uniting humankind while respecting differences."
Blessed Namuncura was a native of Argentina who began studying to become a Salesian at the age of 11. He traveled to Rome with the hope of becoming a priest, but died in 1905 at the age of 19 from an unknown illness. He was beatified in 2007.
The Holy Father continued his words by focusing on the necessity of the Church to protect the human person. It is through exercising her mission that the Church seeks “to promote the dignity of human beings and to elevate them for the good of everyone,” the Pope told the Argentine prelate.
“Without seeking to become a political player she aspires, with the independence of her moral authority, to co-operate faithfully and openly with all leaders of the temporal world in the noble goal of achieving a civilization of justice, peace, reconciliation, solidarity, and of those other ideals that can never be rescinded or left at the mercy of party consensus, as they are engraved in the human heart and correspond to truth."
The current century, the Pope said, continually shows us the need “to forge personal, family and social life in keeping with these elemental values, which exalt the individual and the entire community.”
“Among these we must highlight support for the family based on marriage between a man and a woman, ... defense of human life from conception to natural end, eradication of poverty, ... the struggle against corruption, adopting means to assist parents in their inalienable right to educate their children in their own ethical and religious convictions, and promoting young people that they may become men and women of peace and reconciliation."
Thirty years of papal mediation
The Pope concluded by informing his audience that today, “in the presence of a delegation from the Apostolic See,” the presidents of Argentina and Chile will meet “to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the meditation undertaken by John Paul II to resolve the dispute between the two nations over the demarcation of their borders at the southern tip of the continent.”
The original dispute between Argentina and Chile involved three islands that each country desired to claim so they could have rights over the territorial seas. Argentina desired to say that it had claims to the Pacific, while Chile wanted territorial rights to the Atlantic.
The disagreement continued to escalate until the two nations were about to declare war on December 24, 1978. However, Pope John Paul II intervened, sending a special delegate, Cardinal Antonio Samore to resolve the dispute. After years of negotiations, the governments of Argentina and Chile agreed to divide the islands in a way that neutralized their claims to territorial oceanic rights.
The Holy Father also noted that a monument currently still in the planning stages “will stand as an eloquent witness and serve to tighten further the bonds of fraternity and understanding of both countries.”
“Among these we must highlight support for the family based on marriage between a man and a woman, ... defense of human life from conception to natural end, eradication of poverty, ... the struggle against corruption, adopting means to assist parents in their inalienable right to educate their children in their own ethical and religious convictions, and promoting young people that they may become men and women of peace and reconciliation."
The Holy Father has outlined a list of goals with which no decent man could disagree. The astonishing reality is that Barak Obama openly disagrees with many of them and secretly disagrees with the rest.
First, marriage of a man and woman finds no support or very little support in his party. Second, "defense of human life from conception" is a concept repugnant to Obama who would not even act to defend human life in the immediate vulnerable moments after birth.
His Holiness also talks of universal goals which most decent people could agree with and Obama and the rats do pretend to agree with. The Pope mentions "the struggle against corruption" which all men should subscribe to. The problem with the Democratic position is that ultimately they seek to enshrine corruption as the government. They seek to do away with the rule of law, the Constitution, and the free market and substitutes an ideology which ultimately devolves into the cult of personality and its ultimate corruption. The Soviet Union did not need to worry much about the Mafia because the Mafia was the Soviet Union.
His Holiness recommends "adopting means to assist parents in their inalienable right to educate their children in their own ethical and religious convictions", which Democrats will occasionally pay lip service to but what they really want is to create a giant skinner box, an overwhelming federal bureaucracy, and call it a "village." Worse, they don't not want children enriched by their parent's ethical and religious convictions, they want them indoctrinated in the ideology of collectivism. That is why we have seen the opposition to homeschooling, the opposition to the 10 Commandments, and the move to create indoctrination camps and dragoon youth into compulsory attendance.
His Holiness wishes that the process he recommends will create adults committed to "peace and reconciliation." His values are calculated to effect that goal. All of history tells us that the left has never been interested in peace and reconciliation but in domination even at the cost of war.
I am not a practicing Catholic but more of the evangelical persuasion, nevertheless, I think I have enough discernment to know who was on the track of the good and who is given over to evil.
