Pope says Iraq war threatens humanity

Reuters | 3/22/03

[kattracks]

Pope says Iraq war threatens humanity

VATICAN CITY, March 22 (Reuters) - Pope John Paul, in his first public comment on the outbreak of hostilities in Iraq, said on Saturday that the war there threatened the whole of humanity, and that weapons could never solve mankind's problems.

"When war, like the one now in Iraq, threatens the fate of humanity, it is even more urgent for us to proclaim, with a firm and decisive voice, that only peace is the way of building a more just and caring society," he said.

The Pope, in a speech to members of a Catholic television station, added: "Violence and weapons can never resolve the problems of man."

[goldstategop]

The Pope overlooks the fact Hitler didn't take care of him although other Catholic priests in Poland were taken care of by the Nazis. I wonder if his Holiness feels war to liberate Europe from the bootheels of the Swatiska also threathened humanity. <sarcasm

[Joe Boucher]

This guy doesn't know which way is up at this point. He still is in denile about all the priest buggery. Out of touch? yeah buddy.

[Zipporah]

The pope is an idiot.. (YES I am ducking waiting for the fallout on that comment) I would think the pope of all people would understand the biblical reference to peace is not in reference to peace among men which is impossible..but between God and man..

[dennisw]

More peacenick shuck n jive from the Vatican inner circle. The Pope is out of the loop.

[Cvengr]

Perhaps the Pope might read an anthology of Scriptures known as the Holy Bible. Its conclusion would contradict his premature assessment that this war threatens 'humanity'.

God has a plan and the elimination of humanity isn't in it. For this reason I wouldn't fear anybody who claims a predicament will eliminate or threaten to eliminate humanity. I wonder why the Pope doesn't likewise place just a tad more faith in Him.

[sushiman]

From the net for your perusal and comments :


May 8 brought the 52nd anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, and August 15 will mark the end of the war with Japan. Perhaps it is fitting in the midst of these anniversaries to reflect on some of the factors that enter this business of state-sanctioned, "legalized" murder.

A Christian finds himself in a particularly difficult position over war because of his conflicting loyalties. He knows and wants to obey God’s commandment that clearly says, "You shall not kill." Conversely, he sees in the scriptures that God’s people conducted wars and that God seemingly ordered them, assuring victory for His side. Additionally, we feel the pull to protect the empirical self, of patriotism, of the potential loss of life and limb of loved ones and property. When the things we love are threatened, we feel we must rise to their defense!

Yet war between men and nations is totally unnecessary! God shows that no individual or nation need resort to it. It comes down to relationships and responsibilities: first, the individual’s relationship to God and country, and second, the individual’s responsibility to God and country.

War involves sin. If so, war is totally illegal! As I John 3:4 says, "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." War also involves free-moral agency. God has not given man the right to determine righteousness; He has only given him a choice to follow it or not. God has already established what is righteous. If any man—even Moses or David—or any nation makes the wrong choice, it does not make his choice righteous or God unrighteous. Finally, war involves God’s purpose. He will carry out His will and plan regardless of man’s actions, including his determination to make war.

Sin involves man’s relationship with his Maker. According to Isaiah 59:2, sin damages and can even sever that relationship: "Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear." Crime is offense against man’s laws, enacted by human legislative bodies. Which law, according to God’s Word, has precedence? In the Bible, God clearly establishes His supreme position, as well as the individual’s and human government’s relationships to Him.

In Isaiah 40:9-18, God commands Zion (a type of the church) to lift up its voice to reveal Him to the people. In His ensuing description of Himself, God proclaims Himself as the almighty, all-wise Creator. He has such incomparable power and wisdom that the combined might and intelligence of all nations are as nothing before Him. In our childish vanity, we think of ourselves as being of some account, but we are so insignificant that, compared to Him, all humanity combined is less than nothing and worthless! Considering this testimony, whose law should take precedence?

Colossians 1:13-17 describes our relationship to His Kingdom and expands our understanding of our God and Master Jesus Christ’s awesome position:

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Jesus Christ is not only our Savior but also our Creator. He is the subject of Isaiah 40:9-18, and it is into His Kingdom we have been translated, meaning conveyed or transferred. Paul must mean that this translation is spiritual because God’s Kingdom has not yet literally been established on earth. God "calls those things which do not exist as though they did" (Romans 4:17). We are to conduct our lives and represent God before the world as though we were literally a part of it even now.

Philippians 3:20 reinforces this: "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." The Kingdom of God is still in heaven and will be established on earth at Christ’s return. However, we are already considered its citizens. Thus, our loyalties and submission go to it before everything e

[Outrance]

Could a man call himself a follower of Jesus Christ if he stood by while his neighbor was tortured and murdered while he did nothing? Over 12 years of fruitless talk while thousands suffered under Saddam and finally we use force in the most restrained manner safeguarding the innocent and the Pope thinks we are wrong. He and I are obviously reading different Bibles but then again I knew that when he failed to protect innocent children from abusive priests.

[Free_at_last_-2001]

This guy doesn't know which way is up at this point. - that does seem to be the case.

[magua]

once again the church on the wrong side.

[Free_at_last_-2001]

once again the church on the wrong side. - I'm beginning to think that Vatican II, that made priests "hip cool and trendy" , has something to answer for. But I think we also have to look at the media and the way they selectively report news that is supportive of their agenda and ignore that which is not.

[laz17]

That's it. Over the past couple of weeks, I've made some statements expressing my disgust with the Vatican's position on this war, but I've tried to maintain some semblance of respect. But I've had it. The Vatican can go straight to hell, because the voice that issues from it is the voice of Satan, not God's. It wasn't always this way, but it certainly is now.

All through the pedophile priest scandal, I tried to give the Vatican the benefit of the doubt. Accusations against it enraged me. But now, it is the Pope who enrages me. If he cannot see that the hand of God has chosen to smite Saddam and deliver the Iraqi people from bondage, using George W. Bush and the US military as His sword, then the Pope doesn't know God from a moon god. This constant indictment of this righteous war to remove an evil and bring liberty to an oppressed and brutalized people is totally uncalled for and very insulting. It is beyond being just moral equivalence. It is calling good evil and evil good. I expect that kind of twisted, upside down morality from liberals, leftists, socialists, and communists everywhere... but when the Vatican displays it, it is obscene and grotesque and the greatest evidence yet of the Great Apostasy. That the Vatican should demand that we bow before the will of the UN and so-called "international law" is little more than telling believers to submit to the Beast.

If anybody wants to call me a Catholic basher, save your breath. I used to castigate Catholic bashers. Now, I have to call it as I see it. And what I see is a Catholic Church that has turned AWAY from God, a Catholic Church infiltrated by leftist, communist wolves in sheep's clothing doing their damnedest to fool anyone weak enough not to see through their disguise. What better way for Satan to deceive people than to appear as an angel of light, to disguise himself as a man of God? Jesus said, "A tree is known by its fruit." Well, the fruit of the Vatican these days is rotten and full of worms. This is a moment in human history when God has reached down with His hand to upset the status quo and push His plan for humanity to the next step, and the Vatican is resisting it along with all those who we already know are opposed to God. So whose side is the Vatican on -- God's, or Satan's? For anyone who has eyes to see, the answer to that question is self-evident.

And so, I wash my hands of the Pope. He is not God. He is supposed to be God's highest representative on earth, but he most certainly isn't representing Him any longer. I prefer to put my faith directly in Christ and in God, and totally bypass the Pope and the communist-infiltrated Church. There is a big difference, getting bigger every day, between being Catholic and being a Christian.

[Diva]

I am becoming extremely suspect of these reports of what the Pope does and does not say. If he is actually saying these things than I am sorry and think it tme for him to retire but these reported comments are too effective at destroying his reputation. It is also going to cause a big anti-Catholic backlash, something many in the mainstream media would just love to see happen.

[Jmouse007]

"weapons could never solve mankind's problems"

This statement is patently false. This man is ignorant and does not know or acknowledge the facts regarding world history.

Weapons and the overwhelming use of FORCE against aggression solved the problems Hitler and Japan posed to the entire security, safety, health and well being of the entire world during WWII.

I reently taught at a University in St. Petersburg, Russia. While there I visited Piskaryovsoye Cemetery, a mass graveyard outside the city of St. Petersburg, Russia. I purposely went there as a visceral, visual reminder of what happens when people, leaders and nations of the world try to appease/make peace with or otherwise ignore madmen bent on world conquest and domination.

This site contains over 186 mass graves. I know because I took the time to count each of them and to solemnly ponder their contents. THERE ARE OVER 490,000 PEOPLE BURIED THERE! People just like you and I, people who once lived, breathed, love and dreamed of bright futures for themselves and their children. Over 900, 000 people died in the city of St. Petersburg alone (200, 000 just in Jan-Feb 1942) and MOST of them were civilians; women and children.

All of this happened because the leaders of the world, including Stalin, sought to appease a little madman who amassed weapons and an army in order to dominate his neighbors and the World, by the name of Adolph Hitler.

The pope is WRONG, the lives of these people and the 80 MILLION who died in WWII could have been spared IF weapons and force had been employed to stop Hitler and Imperial Japan at the onset of their aggression.

[Free_at_last_-2001]

That the Vatican should demand that we bow before the will of the UN and so-called "international law" is little more than telling believers to submit to the Beast. - Agreed!

These recent outbursts would have any true catholic questioning their faith. My only issues are:

1. This is reported by anti-catholic organizations (the media)
2. The Pope is old - has he gone senile?
3. Is he being controlled by those around him?

[Hermann the Cherusker]

I'm Catholic and agree with you 100%. Of course, I have my doubts that he is really the Pope, and not a heretic impostor.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Maybe he annoited sadDAM, like so may popes
have annoited killers in the past!
He has got his panties in a twist
because people no longer like his
homosexual predators.

[MadIvan]

It's part of the Holy Father's job to deplore war and violence. After all, he is supposed to be the representative of the Prince of Peace. However this is going way, way over the top. I can only assume that he is ill, and the liberals in the Vatican are using him as a proxy; the healthy Holy Father of the 1980's that stood up to Communism was far more aggressive in his feelings about dictatorships.

Regards, Ivan