Posted on 04/30/2009 1:51:54 PM PDT by NYer
ROME (CNS) -- Incessant and unwarranted criticism against Pope Benedict XVI is part of a larger anti-church campaign being waged by major newspapers and media outlets in the United States and Europe, said an Italian Jesuit magazine.
"Catholics in Italy and Europe know very well that a preconceived hostility exists against church doctrine, especially in the field of ethics," La Civilta Cattolica said.
The mass media, "which is the voice of powerful forces and interests, is an excellent propagator of this hostility," said a May 2 article released to journalists April 30.
The article, written by Jesuit Father Giandomenico Mucci, said "the media campaign that tends to discredit the pope finds fodder in the most outrageous interpretations made from papal speeches" and remarks. The Rome-based biweekly magazine is reviewed by the Vatican Secretariat of State before publication.
The magazine said there have been numerous occasions when commentators have distorted what the pope says or does because they view his actions through "biased lenses."
Pope Benedict and his teachings have been the target of a constant barrage of "overcriticism, aggravation and unpleasantness," it said.
Even when the pope was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope John Paul II, he was described as Pope John Paul's German Rottweiler -- an "inflexible, cold controller of doctrine," it said.
Instead, anyone who has actually met or knows Pope Benedict would know that he has always been esteemed, even when he was head of the doctrinal office, for being an extremely gentle, spiritual, intellectually curious and peaceful man, said the article.
These "denigrating and delegitimizing efforts" against the pope, it said, are part of a "much larger campaign, which, at a universal level, tends to discredit the Catholic Church: from the (London) Times to The New York Times and The Washington Post, from Le Monde ... to the Italian press."
While not citing specific press reports, the magazine said the secular press often has put in a negative light church pronouncements on the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death and church opposition to the legal recognition of civil unions.
The reason for this hostility, said the journal, is people are opposed to religion in general and Catholicism in particular for asserting itself as the keeper of the one absolute truth.
Dogma, rules and morality that are not self-made make the church and the pope "inconvenient" for people caught up in the secular world and its false sense of freedom, it said.
But the critics are not in the majority, it said, and many people admire and praise the pope and the church for proclaiming "a new humanism."
The church offers humanity "an ethical project that focuses on forming the person in his or her entirety; it is a clear and solid spiritual and cultural project inspired by doctrine and indulgent toward the stumblings of every single individual," it said.
Ping!
Misprint?
Jesus said it would happen...and it continues.
As that once-popular hymn paraphrases the gospel:
“And if wicked men [note the sexist use of male pronoun to depict wickedness (/sarc)] insult and hate you,
all because of me,
blessed - blessed - are you.”
Nah! Ya think?
I heard the jesuit community is predominantly homosexual
Did you hear that from the media?
No.
From accounts of of those that attended their schools and others that were initiates of the order.
Cool hat! What a cheerful face he has!
There have been some Jesuits who have remained faithful. Avery Cardinal Dulles was one, as is Fr. Joseph Fessio, who helped start Ignatius Press, and who was critical to the building of Ave Maria University in Florida. Most of the kids there absolutely LOVED him.
“He who rebels against our Father, Christ on earth, is condemned to death, for that which we do to him, we do to Christ in heaven-we honour Christ if we honour the Pope, we dishonour Christ if we dishonour the Pope....Well do I know that there are many who do not think they are offending God by so doing, but rather that they are doing Him a service by persecuting the Church and her servants, for they defend themselves by saying: ‘They are so corrupt and work all manner of evil.’ But I tell you that God wills and has so commanded that even if the priests and the pastors of the Church and Christ on earth were incarnate devils, it is seemly that we are obedient and subject to them, not for their sake, but for the sake of God, out of obedience to Him, for He wills that we should act thus. . .”.
St. Catherine of Sienna
This is the way it was in the 70’s and early 80’s. Then the bigots were turned out to pasture. So...don’t give up Christian leaders. Keep talking the talk and walking the walk. They will return because God is programed in people.
The Left’s global warming and gay religion is going to crash and burn.
In this country, it's the Jesuits themselves who are among the major critics of the Pope and the magisterium.
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