Thank you "Kolokotronis"
Posted on 02/11/2005 11:43:24 AM PST by xm177e2
VATICAN CITY, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Pope John Paul, still convalescing after 10 days in hospital, told the world's sick on Friday that their suffering was "precious", but did not deliver his message in person at a special service for sick people.
The 84-year-old Pontiff returned to the Vatican on Thursday evening after doctors decided he had recovered from an acute breathing crisis brought on by a bout of influenza.
But Vatican officials are taking no risks with his frail health and the Pope missed Friday's commemorative Mass, held to mark the day the Roman Catholic Church dedicates each year to sick people.
Instead, a senior Cardinal read the Pope's speech, which made no reference to his time in hospital.
"Your suffering is never useless, dear sick people. Moreover, it's a precious thing," the speech said. "If you bring together your suffering and pain, you can be his (God's) privileged helpers in the salvation of souls".
Besides his recent breathing problems, the Pope suffers from Parkinson's disease and severe arthritis.
He no longer walks, has difficulty speaking and his urgent admission to hospital raised fresh questions over how long he can remain head of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics.
In an apparent bid to allay fears about his health, John Paul was brought home from hospital in full public view, sitting in a brightly lit Popemobile for the five minute drive through Rome, which was broadcast live on Italian television.
To make the point that it was business as usual for the Vatican bureaucracy, the Holy See announced a flurry of appointments on Friday, including a successor to Paris Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger and posts in Mexico and Angola.
The Vatican has yet to say whether the Polish Pope will make his usual weekly blessing from his apartment windows on Sunday.
John Paul appeared at his hospital window last Sunday, speaking in a hoarse, barely audible voice that fuelled debate over whether he should resign.
Church law says a Pope can resign, but it is a rare event. The last Pope to resign willingly was Celestine V, who stepped down in 1294. Gregory XII reluctantly abdicated in 1415 when more than one Pope was reigning at the same time.
But the Pope's battle against illness and the weakness of the flesh is also seen as an inspiration by the faithful, even if the Pontiff cannot fully express himself verbally.
"The sick Pope is the icon of the suffering of humanity", Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone told ANSA news agency.
"There is a profound meaning in this event. The Pope ... shows his spiritual strength," Bertone said, adding that his struggle took on more meaning "in a society that increasingly values youth".
Me and some of my Opus Dei buddies have been checking up on your IP address and we know where you're at. We're thinking of paying you a little visit. Depending on your attitude from here on out, we may or may not bring with us some members of the Missionaries of Charity Special Torture Division and perhaps a handful of angry Swiss Guards, also.
We'll show you what suffering means.
Just shut up, OK? You know way too much. This is supposed to be a secret. Only a small number of Opus Dei special operatives and an elite Knights Templar unit are supposed to know this and here you are blabbing all over the internet.
What goes on in our hospices is none of your business.
lol
Beautiful Icon! Amen!
lol...and you are sure your handle should be marshmallow?
The pope did not establish the Inquisition as a distinct and separate tribunal; what he did was to appoint special but permanent judges, who executed their doctrinal functions In the name of the pope. Where they sat, there was the InquisitionNote that the very fact that the Popes had to urge cooperation means that there was no direct administration of the Inquisitors by the bishops. Which is exactly what we need.[...]
The Inquisitor, strictly speaking, was a special but permanent judge, acting in the name of the pope and clothed by him with the right and the duty to deal legally with offences against the Faith; he had, however, to adhere to the established rules of canonical procedure and pronounce the customary penalties.
That Gregory IX, through his appointment of Dominicans and Franciscans as inquisitors, withdrew the suppression of heresy from the proper courts (i.e. from the bishops), is a reproach that in so general a form cannot be sustained. So little did he think of displacing episcopal authority that, on the contrary he provided explicitly that no inquisitional tribunal was to work anywhere without the diocesan bishops co-operation. And if, on the strength of their papal jurisdiction, inquisitors occasionally manifested too great an inclination to act independently of episcopal authority it was precisely the popes who kept them within right bounds.
(Source: New Advent: Inquisition)
The heir to the Inquisition is extant. I forget which Vatican institution it is now. It is not, evidently, doing much.
You really should type in "sarcasm now off" when you say something this outrageous. Otherwise people might take you seriously or indistinguishable for a fool.
It is at these times we can strengthen our faith in Christ, and find comfort in the embrace of the Sacred Heart.
That's what the Pope meant, IMO.
I think you are reading the wrong message into one simple line.
RCBS? The entire Holy Bible is Roman Catholic. Sola Scriptura is the BS.
Colossians 1:24. RCBS is a company that makes very fine reloading equipment.
Thank you "Kolokotronis"
**If suffering is so beautiful, will Catholic hospitals prescribe the full amount of painkillers to patients, or will they withhold a little, just to make the place more holy?**
Why so sarcastic?
**If suffering is so beautiful, will Catholic hospitals prescribe the full amount of painkillers to patients, or will they withhold a little, just to make the place more holy? **
Why so sarcastic?
Yours is a hateful, pitiful little mind, isn't it?
I pray for an abatement of your ignorance and spite...it threatens your redemption.
Marshmallow made a wonderful effort, but you get my prize. LOL
I'm sorry to see that some (I don't refer to you) posters
are displaying the kind of personal, ad hominem vituperative attacks that enable others to justify their
charges of hypocrisy against Christians. Relative to the
matter of suffering, some distinctions need to be made.
It has always accepted and known that certain types of
suffering lead to great spiritual insights. Read the Lives
of the Saints. Having said that, it has NEVER been part
of a genuine religious faith to believe that gratuitously
or sadistically or wantonly inflicted suffering is anything
but evil. Some types of suffering can elevate spiritually
and some can degrade and dehumanize and embitter. And the
spiritual pontential and condition of the recipient
matters. Christopher Hitchens is vehemently anti-religious
but he is an independent thinker who has supported Bush
and the war against terror - despite his leftist leanings.
And he does so with a humor and irony that are delightful.
When we deal with other human beings we cannot lose our
own humanity by HATING. As Bobby Burns said, "There's so
so much good in the worst of us, And so much that's bad
in the best of us, It ill-behooves any of us, To talk
about the rest of us."
I'm sorry to see that some (I don't refer to you) posters
are displaying the kind of personal, ad hominem vituperative attacks that enable others to justify their
charges of hypocrisy against Christians. Relative to the
matter of suffering, some distinctions need to be made.
It has always accepted and known that certain types of
suffering lead to great spiritual insights. Read the Lives
of the Saints. Having said that, it has NEVER been part
of a genuine religious faith to believe that gratuitously
or sadistically or wantonly inflicted suffering is anything
but evil. Some types of suffering can elevate spiritually
and some can degrade and dehumanize and embitter. And the
spiritual pontential and condition of the recipient
matters. Christopher Hitchens is vehemently anti-religious
but he is an independent thinker who has supported Bush
and the war against terror - despite his leftist leanings.
And he does so with a humor and irony that are delightful.
When we deal with other human beings we cannot lose our
own humanity by HATING. As Bobby Burns said, "There's so
so much good in the worst of us, And so much that's bad
in the best of us, It ill-behooves any of us, To talk
about the rest of us."
Plenty (see post #6 for examples).
Don't you read your Bible?
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