Posted on 03/26/2006 3:50:13 PM PST by NYer
(AGI) - Vatican, March 25 - During the whole 26 years that Pope John Paul II served as pontiff, "everyone was quite aware of the presence of the Virgin Mary as Mother and Queen of the Church during his spirituality and his untiring inistry". But, said the new pontiff, "this presence was most obvious during the attack on his life in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981". This was a bold statement from Pope Benedict XVI this morning to the new cardinals and all Catholics on the role the Virgin played in deviating Ali Agca's bullet. He made it during the mass at the close of his first Consistory. In fact, it is widely known that the Polish Pope maintained that the prophecy of the third secret of Fatima was consigned to him, the description of a bishop dressed in white lying in a pool of blood.
On that occasion, Joseph Ratzinger was the regional head (or prefect) of the Holy See and had to explain the Pope's thinking to the public and make it clear that this interpretation was not a dogma of the Catholic faith. And today, looking at the window that is now his after the previous pope's papacy, Benedict XVI added, "in memory of that tragic event, Pope John Paul II wanted a mosaic of the Virgin to be placed high above the Apostolic Palace, overlooking St. Peter's Square. It would be there as a reminder of both the highlights and the more everyday moments of his long papacy, which entered its final phase precisely a year ago, a phase that was simultaneously painful and triumphant, in a way that is appropriate at Easter".
You are quick witted, aren't you?
/sarcasm
lol
Mary didn't do squat.
God saved his life for HIS purposes, not as a favor to the pope.
There are reports that some say an invisible hand blocked the bullet from striking vital organs. (In other words, the bullet's path was not straight, and that was peculiar, for if it had taken a straight path, it would have struck vital organs).
On the one year anniversary of the attempt on the pontiff's life, Pope John Paul II decided to be in Fatima, Portugal on May 13, 1982. He supposedly requested information on Fatima (the apparitions) while he was convalescing from the attempted assination.
I wonder if there are any medical records to prove/disprove that the bullet did not take a straight path.
This is documented in at least one book about Fatima (I believe the one by Robert Fox).
It is interesting to note that May 13, 1981 is an interesting date. If one reverses the "81" into "18", one has the May 13, 1918 - the first Anniversary of Fatima.
The book 1984 gets it title as the author took the year 1948 and reversed the last two digits to give a time frame for his story... Perhaps of interest...
LOL...
How goes it? I miss some of the heated discussions on the TNS. Folks don't have to agree/disagree to give you credit on making folks think about what they write. Regards - Fury...
Hey Fury. I've been ignoring you since the Huskers
played the Buffs last year. Can you blame me?
That was a blowout. I'm still not sold on Callahan as the head coach for Nebraska. I figure he's got two more years to get to a more prominent bowl. Solich got jobbed thanks to the AD at Nebraska
CU had/has those other issues on campus in regards to football, and that did not help Barnett any and probably hurt recruiting...
They started looking like their old selves toward the end of last season. Not a comforting thought for Buff fans.
"Buff" fans as in fully clothed fans of the Colorado team.
Didn't want anyone on this thread to get the wrong impression. :-)
Take it up with the late Pope, or the current one, not with me.
So, if someone insults, via sarcasm, some aspect of the Christian Faith that I hold dear, I am supposed to keep my mouth shut to mollify your tender sensibilities? Do you congratulate the poster to whom I responded for his courageous sarcasm in the process of exercising his First Amendment rights? Doubtless you do. Very well, I am merely exercising mine in refuting his sarcasm and the premises on which it was based. Did I ask to have his post pulled?
Relax.
No, thank *you*! Your reply was also just about what was expected.
As a Catholic who believes in devotion to the Blessed Mother, and stating further that I believe that devotion to the Mother of God is in fact inseparably connected with salvation, it is rather silly for someone to feel obligated to believe that Mary herself directed a bullet this way and that way in a miracle to save the Pope's life.
It would be more along the lines of a pious emotion than anything else. I don't believe it and in fact think it to be somewhat silly or even irritating.
If his holiness JPII of blessed memory says that Mary our Mother saved him from that bullet I believe him. You seem to forget that Mary could have only done so with the full consent of God who alone can work miracles either directly or through others.
You seem to think that you must insult the Mother of God in order to exalt Jesus. The very opposite is true. When we honor Mary we are doing so because her very life is a testament to the grace and glory of Gof.
Never type when the sun is in your eyes. Gof of course should be God. Now I must mea culpa about 1000 times.
Are you actually comparing a human being, Mary, to Jesus Christ????????
My intercession is the same as Mary's. So maybe the Pope should be hanging a mosiac of me in St. Peter's Square.
Mark 3:35 For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.
Could you post some Scripture to back that up?
Can you post some Scripture to refute it?
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