Posted on 07/25/2008 5:47:29 AM PDT by markomalley
Pope Benedict XVI's refusal to address the European parliament for fear it is becoming "militantly secularist" initially struck me, a humanist MEP, a triumph of equality and rationality for the EU.
But on deeper reflection, I think it's a cop-out of the grandest scale, setting a dangerous precedent for other cultural and religious leaders to "opt out" of EU proceedings if they are dissatisfied with their values and methods. By refusing to take part in the parliament's Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the pontiff is effectively holding the EU to ransom. Declining to speak to MEPs, giving the excuse of other commitments and his age, sends out a very clear message: "Unless you play by my rules, I'm not taking part." (His age has not, incidentally, stopped him visiting Australia and America this year.)
I read the Vatican's contention that the EU has become increasingly "secularist" over recent years to mean less Christian. In some respects this is true. The EU refused to mention "God" in the now moribund constitution and has permitted the use of EU funding for research involving stem cells. Since its inception over 50 years ago the EU has indeed moved away from the deeply Christian beliefs of its founding fathers in order to bring together an estimated 497m Europeans. The 2008 population count across the EU includes an estimated 16m Muslims, over a million Jews and approximately 18m atheists. Under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development stem cell research can be funded, on a case-by-case basis, subject to certain conditions. These conditions include a guarantee that EU cash would not be used for the destruction of human embryos, a compromise with critics of stem cell research.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
"Humanist"=atheist.
well the guardian is a
socialist paper.
whatta ya expect?
Well at least the man is not a total idiot. He recognizes that the European Union Constitution is on its last leg.
He doesn’t seem to see any link between the lack of recognition of the existence of God by the EU with that lack of success by the EU however.
Of course if he did recognize the link he would not be a Humanist and he would have to accept his complicity in the failure.
Exactly...and the Pope does not make such decisions without prayer and excellent rationale.
This appears to be the moneyline. With the challenges that the socialists heading up the EU already face, methinks that Ms. Honeyball forsees more problems coming her way from the "over almost a third of all Europeans".
The vast majority of MEPs, myself included, would have listened attentively to what the Pope had to say.
Somehow I doubt the veracity of Ms. Honeyball's statement. Now, if she had added "... and then promptly ignored all of the Pope's comments.", I would be more likely to believe her.
This would, I imagine, have given him a far greater chance of influencing the future proceedings of the EU than taking his bat home to his comfort zone in Rome.
I suspect that the Pope knows full well that Ms. Honeyball and her socialist comrades would gladly be openly putting a bat to the Pope's noggin, if it wasn't necessary to hide their real agenda until they can get the EU up and running with it's own military arm.
The Guardian is a socialist publication that has no tolerance for religions other than Islam.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.