[patriciaruth]

Well, they did such a good job of stopping Hitler, and such a good job of protecting altar boys, that I think we should be grateful that they care so much.

/sarcasm

[AmericaUnited]

The Pope needs to read this in the book of Romans.

13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 13:4 For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil."

Hello! God ordains righteous government to "execute wrath" on evil doers.

The Apostle Paul had to correct the doctrine of the "First Pope" (See Galatians Chapter 2), and I see this is needed again.

[DoughtyOne]

Not a good idea.

[AmericaUnited]

The Pope may also be interested in reading the story of the Levi and his wife in Judges Chapters 19+20. His wife was raped and murdered by evil men in a city controlled by the Tribe of Benjamin. Because they did not want to turn in the evil men, the judgement of God was upon them and a lot of them were killed. Also, because the tribe from Jabesh Gilead did not partitpate in this judgement, they also were killed.

Moral of the story: THOSE WHO TOLERATE EVIL AND DO NOTHING ABOUT IT WILL BE JUDGED!

[John W]

Reading our Bishop's writing on this in Today's Catholic this week,it could have been edited by any number of isolationists with blinders on circa 1935-1939,including that great Catholic statesman, old Joe Kennedy.I don't know whether to be mad,scared or what,but my Church is wrong here.

[livius]

Please somebody tell me this isn't so...

[Cachelot]

The Pope again. Anyone need any more proof that this is a malign force?

[jrlc]

Maybe while he's there he can tell the UN what he's going to do about the sexual crimes committed by "priests" in his "Church" during his tenure. Or, maybe that's the connection -- boy buggering in both Islam and Catholicism is okay with the Pope as long as it isn't reported by the liberal press.

[DB]

Well John Paul, do you call what is currently being done to the Iraqi people "peace"?

If you do, well peace be with you too...

[livius]

Re-reading this article, I see that it's really about of Pio Laghi, the former nuncio and current emissary of the Pope in this affair.

I hope Pio Laghi is NOT a "friend of the Bush family," because Pio Laghi is an evil man. He was responsible, when he was nuncio, for the appointment of some of the most awful bishops in the Church, some of whom even had to be removed and many of whom were involved in the current scandals.

There are many people who feel that Pio Laghi's activities were not innocent bumbling, but were a genuine attempt to destroy or at least significantly re-shape the Church. It is horrifying to see that he is being allowed to do more damage now.

[LadyDoc]

The pope gets his info from EUROPEANS, mainly french.

But he also sees if we attack Iraq, that Islamofascists will be increased in number and start attacking Europe and the US, probably with WMD. It will also allow North Korea to attack while the US is "distracted". Christians in lands with a lot of Muslims will be killed.

In other words, the war is just, but it just might start WWIII, a multifaceted war on many different fronts, with millions of casualties from nuclear and biological weapons that will be smuggled into Europe and the USA, and ultimatly including a religious war between christianity and Islam.

This would be similar to Pius XI allowing a treaty between Germany and the church in 1933, which failed to see that Hitler would not only ignore the treaty but use it to show the "church" supported him. Without the treaty, a couple million Catholics would have died in Germany, and it would have made no difference in the long run for the war.

The question not answered by the Pope is what will happen if we DON'T go in. The ultimate result will be expanding Islamofascism that will again (for the third time) invade an aging Europe which already has a large young fifth column of unintegrated Islamic immigrants.

We in the US will be fairly well off: We have huge rural areas that will be safe no matter what, and our immigrants are mostly Christian. But Europe will bear the brunt of the war.

To this day, Catholics celebrate our Lady of Victories, celebrating the successful Battle of Lepanto, against invading Turkish forces. The idea was that a superior force was repelled at Lepanto and also in the Battle of Vienna, thanks to prayer.

So if we pray and fast, there might be a third way to resolve this: Between appeasement and war. Remember the fall of the Berlin wall? That was an example. It was not the appeasement urged by the Leftwing Catholic US bishops's conference, nor war. And THAT was the result of prayer.

[Chi-townChief]

I think it may be time for JP to step down; someone else must be pulling the strings over there. This certainly doesn't sound like the same Pope who joined President Reagan and PM Thatcher and faced down the Warsaw Pact leaders.

[Beck_isright]

Hmmm, to my memory, I don't recall the Pope saying word one of prayer for all of the women and children being raped, experimented on with biological and chemcial weapons, having limbs cut off without regard or shot without trial. But I guess being with the communists in favor of the one world government solution to all problems in the world is more important than Iraqi civilians.

[CatoRenasci]

Given the current state of the American Church, at least, the moral authority of the Holy See is pretty low right now. This is a bad move. The Church should clean its own house before going on a moral crusade to support Islamism and socialist dictators like Saddam. Very sad.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Consider this, from Hobbes' Leviathan, in 1668:

Part IV. Of the Kingdom of Darkness

Chap. xlvii. Of the Benefit that proceedeth from such Darkness

[21] ...For from the time that the Bishop of Rome had gotten to be acknowledged for bishop universal, by pretence of succsession to St. Peter, their whole hierarchy (or kingdom of darkness) may be compared not unfitly to the kingdom of fairies (that is, to the old wives' fables in England, concerning ghosts and spirits and the feats they play in the night). And if a man consider the original of this ecclesiastical dominion, he will easily perceive that the Papacy is no other than the ghost of the deceased Roman empire sitting crowned upon the grave thereof. For so did the Papacy start out of the ruins of that heathen power.

[22] The language also which they use (both in the churches and in their public acts) being Latin, which is not commonly used by any nation now in the world, what is it but the ghost of the old Roman language?

[23] The fairies, in what nation soever they converse, have but one universal king, which some poets of ours call King Oberon; but the Scripture calls Beelzebub, prince of demons. The ecclesiastics likewise, in whose dominions soever they be found, acknowledge but one universal king, the Pope.

[24] The ecclesiastics are spiritual men and ghostly fathers. The fairies and ghosts inhabit darkness, solitudes, and graves. The ecclesiastics walk in obscurity of doctrine...

[livius]

Please note that this is Pio Laghi talking, telling us what the Pope wants or might do; even Renato Martino didn't seem certain about this. See my post #21 for details about Pio Laghi, a notorious Church left-winger and liberal.

He is technically retired. But since the power struggle in the Vatican between the liberal wing (represented by the German now-Cardinal Kasper) and the conservative wing (represented by Ratzinger) in which Ratzinger lost and the liberals won with the appointment of Kaspar, the left has come into power at the Vatican again.

I don't think the Pope who destroyed Communism in Eastern Europe is in charge any more.

[Thane_Banquo]

This is not the Middle Ages. The Pope is a clergy member, not a crafter of foreign policy.

[concerned about politics]

What happened to separation of church and state? Where's the liberals drawing up law suits? Oh yeh. The pope is one of theirs.
It looks like the lefts church is going even farther left. It probably isn't going to last much longer after the old man dies.

[Pure Country]

Just one more war that the pope won't fight--Add it to priestly sex abuse. Does he not have a clue about what is going on in his own backyard or in Iraq....or does he just not care?

[Let's Roll]

This is what delaying has reaped. It's easier to acquire forgiveness than permission. - GO Dubya!