Bloodthirsty Liberal

With respect to His Holiness, he doesn’t know what the [bleeping bleep] he’s talking about:

The Pope has called for reform of the United Nations and financial bodies, giving them the “real teeth” needed to tackle economic and social injustice.

Benedict XVI said the blind pursuit of profit and economic mismanagement had “wreaked havoc” on the global economy.

The market, said the Pope, must not become the place where the strong prevail over the weak.

His encyclical letter said a reformed UN should strive for disarmament, food security and environmental protection.

Its “toothlessness” is the UN’s only saving grace. Is the pontiff seriously arguing that Libya, current member of the Security Council, be given policing authority?

I can think of only one person who likes that suggestion:

And the “blind pursuit of profit”, while a catchy phrase, has driven more people out of poverty than all organizations and social programs combined.

There are things to admire about this pope, but speechifying like Barack Obama is not one of them.

Canadian columnist David Warren takes a few weeks off after Easter every year.

But he’s back, with a vengeance:

I think Barack Obama came quite well out of his first 100 days. The personal qualities that got him elected do transfer to elected office, in his case. He is eloquent and unflappable; he is unreadable yet outwardly consistently charming; he looks close up when at a distance, and at a distance when close up; he is smooth and ruthless in the pursuit of his political goals. He has, as we already knew, the gift of charisma with crowds, the seemingly magical ability to embody sweet reason even when making statements entirely hollow of substance. There is something very presidential in that.

I was especially impressed with the way he remained “above the fray” when one cabinet appointment after another proved to be a dog. Somehow it wasn’t Obama’s mistake; somehow it became the fault of the person he had appointed. The new president had the gift of making himself invisible at will; though it should be said that he depends on supine mass media to accomplish this trick.

…

But the speech at Notre Dame was a master-stroke.

Aware that his own support for abortion and his similar “progressive” ethical stances on all other life and social issues were what made him most alien to Catholic and traditionally Christian voters, he went to work fashioning a wedge. Just getting the leading Catholic university in the U.S. to confer an honorary degree on him — given his uncompromising “pro-choice” positions — was a major accomplishment. For, by granting this the powers at Notre Dame themselves drove a tremendous wedge, on President Obama’s behalf, into the heart of their own community, dividing those who were appalled by their decision from those who were not appalled.

But I watched the speech itself — given the kind of live mass coverage that commencement speeches seldom receive — with a kind of admiring horror. In a few short minutes of sophistical artistry, Obama had changed the issue from whether we should allow the killing of babies, to whether we should tolerate the sort of people who are against such things. And then, by declaring that we should, indeed, tolerate such people, he harvested the general applause.

Here is a man who will in fact change America. I flinch at what it will become.

So do we, Mr. Warren. So do we.

In fact, we flinch at what it has become.

As usual, I find Rush’s take interesting:

The real question’s not what did Obama say. I mean Obama is who he is. He was consistent as he can be. The question is what happened to Notre Dame over the years? I mean that’s the real question. Obviously Notre Dame is what’s changed, and I think in simplified terms you’d have to say that Notre Dame is what? A major American university and what has happened to major American universities? They’ve all been overrun by the left, and we all know the Catholic Church has its own liberal members who are trying to tell the Vatican and the pope to leave them alone and modernize the church and so forth. So it appears that that’s happened at Notre Dame.

Most interesting of all, Obama in his own words on what to do with those unpleasant fetuses who insist on being born alive, after an abortion:

Obama, Senate floor, 2002: [A]dding a – an additional doctor who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments is really designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion. … I think it’s important to understand that this issue ultimately is about abortion and not live births.

Obama, Senate floor, 2001: Number one, whenever we define a previable fetus as a person that is protected by the equal protection clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we’re really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a – a child, a nine-month-old – child that was delivered to term. That determination then, essentially, if it was accepted by a court, would forbid abortions to take place. I mean, it – it would essentially bar abortions, because the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an antiabortion statute.

Only a radically left-wing Constitutional “scholar” could walk down that line of reasoning—the unborn (or “erroneously” born) are persons, ergo shielded by the equal protection clause—and reject it because it conflicts with the free and unfettered access to abortion.

We may disagree on whether such “reasoning” is monstrous, but no one can deny that it is de facto presidential.

Walks out as Palestinian cleric delivers anti-Semitic diatribe

Pope walks out after Muslim cleric accuses Israel of ’slaughter’
By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters
Tags: Pope Israel, Israel news

The head of the Palestinian Sharia court, Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi, fiercely denounced Israeli policy in the presence of Pope Benedict on Monday and appealed to the pope to help end what he called the “crimes of the Jewish state.”

Speaking at an interfaith conference held at the Notre Dame Church in East Jerusalem, al-Tamimi accused Israel of slaughtering women, children and senior citizens.

The speech was delivered in Arabic, without simultaneous translation, but after the pope was informed of the political nature of al-Tamimi’s speech, he left the conference.

Oy. What a headache.

- Aggie

This is a priest in northern Italy. Apparently there are fascist priests working in that region.

Swastika priest

A priest has shocked parishioners by welcoming them to church wearing a swastika armband.

Fascist Father Angelo Idi, 51 - who once saw off a charity box thief with a truncheon at his church in Vigevano, Italy - confessed: “I am proud of my right wing beliefs. But people shouldn’t care about my politics, they should care about how good a priest I am.”

In northern Italy where former dictator Benito Mussolini comes from the far right Italian LEGA NORD (Northern League) have their political stronghold - and there have been several instances of priests with far right views that have embarrassed the Catholic Church.

Last month a right wing Italian priest who is a member of Richard Williamson’s Pius fraternity was caught giving the Hitler salute at a neo-fascist rally - but claimed he was just trying to bless his flock.

Catholic priest Giulio Tam, well known for his extremist right views, raised his right arm when speaking at a rally of the neo-fascist Forza Nuova party in Bergamo, northern Italy.

The ultra-conservative Pius fraternity hit the headlines recently as British Catholic bishop and Holocaust denier Richard Williamson is a member.

After a picture revealed Tam raising his right hand, he argued: “The young people of the Forza Nuova wanted me to bless them. I’ll always be on their side.”

Tam regards Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as a martyr and has in the past held masses at Mussolini’s grave.

When we reported about the Pope’s decision to reinstate the holocaust denying Bishop a few months ago, we got a lot of mail suggesting that we just didn’t understand, that the Pope was saving souls, etc. I wonder if those same people care to weigh in on this?

- Aggie

That’s all the Jews do about the Holocaust. Do they think it was fun for anyone else?

A Brazilian archbishop dropped a bombshell Friday when he said Catholics and gypsies had been more persecuted than Jews during the Second World War.

“The Jews talk about six million people killed. But how many Catholics were victims of the Holocaust? They were 22 million in all,” Archbishop Dadeus Grings, from Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, told advertising magazine “Press & Advertising.”

The archbishop also contended that while “Jews say they were the main victims of the Holocaust, the biggest victims were the gypsies, because they were exterminated.”

Twenty-two million Catholics? I’m willing to consider the claim, but where does he get it? Just dying in WWII doesn’t count, and Poland doesn’t take you far enough.

And while I’m sympathetic to the gypsies (Romani, please, Your Excellency), this table shows the Jews do have a case to make:

What do you call two-thirds of the civilized continent’s Jewish population, Archbishop? A start?

And what the [bleep] are you doing talking this [bleep] to Press & Advertising magazine?

I won’t comment on the Pope’s rejection of condoms (he prefers—no, no joking around here).

But I do think he may be just a teensy-weensy fallible on this point:

Religion must reject violence, Pope Benedict XVI told Muslim leaders Thursday before celebrating an open-air Mass in front of thousands and delivering a message of hope for Africa’s expanding, vibrant Catholic flock.

…

In his homily, Benedict expressed compassion for African children being kidnapped and forced to fight by rebel groups trying to carve up parts of Africa.

“God loves you, he has not forgotten you,” he said in a message to these children.
Child soldiers have been used by rebels in eastern Congo and by Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army. An estimated 3,500 children are still with armed groups in Congo alone.

Earlier, the pope met with 22 representatives of Cameroon’s sizable Muslim minority and noted that religion is the basis of human civilization. He also returned to one of the key themes of his papacy, saying there is no incompatibility between faith and reason.

“Genuine religion … stands at the base of any authentically human culture,” he said.

“It rejects all forms of violence and totalitarianism: not only on principles of faith but also of right reason.”

With respect, your Holiness, that’s bull[bleep].

That may be your opinion—and how I wish it were so—but it is utterly refuted by not only events, but by the doctrine and central tenets of certain religions themselves.

I’ll leave it to you to guess which one(s).

But a hint would be to look for the religion which preaches that large boulders will rat out Jews on the day of judgement.

“The [divine messenger deleted] said the Resurrection will not take place until the [religion redacted] fight the Jews, and the [religion redacted] kill them. The [religion redacted] will kill the Jews, rejoice [in it], rejoice in [deity edited]’s victory. The [religion redacted] will kill the Jews, and he will hide. The [divine messenger deleted] said, ‘the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say, ‘O servant of [deity edited], O [religion redacted], this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!”

Now that you’ve learned the value of Google, Benedict, you might look up that citation.

The Pope says “Oops!”

The Pope has admitted making mistakes over the lifting of the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop.

In a letter to church leaders, parts of which have been published on a popular Catholic blog, Pope Benedict XVI says the church should have been aware of the views of Bishop Richard Williamson.

…

The bishop’s rehabilitation sparked condemnation from Israel, Jewish leaders in the U.S. and Catholic leaders in Germany, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, among others.

The Pope admits in his letter, to be released in full Thursday, that the affair had taken him by surprise, with something that was meant to be a gesture of Christian unity becoming misrepresented.

He queries whether the Society of St. Pius X should have been left to drift away from the Church.

Stung by criticism from fellow Catholics, the Pope says he was “saddened” by the hostility of the attacks on him.

However, he thanks the “Jewish friends” who helped “re-establish an atmosphere of friendship and trust.”

Nice of him to reach out to his “Jewish friends”. I’m serious.

But let’s see if we can give Il Papa a sense of what it feels like to have your very existence questioned.

No… no, I can’t. Jesus doesn’t deserve to be used or abused to make a point. See if you can work up a little empathy on your own, P-man.

The mysteries of the Pope

Are the Holocaust deniers Catholics or not? Specifically, is Bishop Williamson a Catholic or not?

Vatican envoy: Holocaust deniers can’t be considered Catholic
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Jewish World, Israel News

The Vatican’s envoy to Israel asserted on Monday that Holocaust deniers could not be considered Catholic, in an apparent bid to temper tensions ahead of a papal visit in May.

Antonio Frank, the envoy, was seemingly referring to Pope Benedict XVI’s reinstatement of bishop Bishop Williamson, who has denied the full extent of the Holocaust and says there were no gas chambers. The move sparked an outcry among Israelis and Jews across the world.

Williamson later apologized for his remarks.

Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev expressed satisfaction at Frank’s comment, saying that the conference was a step toward “building trust and creating dialogue, in the wake of the latest crisis with the Vatican.”

Frank was speaking at a conference held by both Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and the Vatican on the actions of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust.

The joint conference was an effort to clear the air between Yad Vashem and the Vatican following another incident that strained relations two years ago.

Then, the Vatican envoy to Israel threatened to cancel his participation in the annual Holocaust-day memorial, as a result of a controversial caption placed under a picture of Pius XII in the museum. The caption stated that the Pope’s response to the Holocaust was questionable and that he did not do enough to aid Jews.

I don’t want to step on any religious toes here, but facts are facts. If saving Jews had been a priority to the Catholic church, there were be a lot more Jews in the world today. Italy was a Catholic country, Germany and Austria had enormous Catholic populations, Poland was Catholic, France had a Catholic majority, I believe. While it is true that some churches saved some people, some individual Catholics hid some people, and we are forever grateful for that, it is also true that there wasn’t an all-out effort, or even strong statements on the part of the Vatican. Many Catholics participated in the killing and the looting. I don’t blame the church for that, nor do I blame all Catholics for what some did. But we should be honest about this and not try to rewrite history.

To understand the enormity of the missed opportunity to save lives, Catholics should study what a single village of French Huguenots did during the holocaust. There was a village of 5,000 people, approximately, and they hid and saved 5,000 Jews. A one-to-one ratio. There was at least one Jewish birth in that village, and he made a documentary about what the villagers did, interviewing the surviving villagers and many Jews that had been saved. The film is called, Weapons of the Spirit. Here’s a brief overview:

WEAPONS OF THE SPIRIT (1989 Classroom Version)

Wea

A moving account of the villagers of Le Chambon—a remote village in southeastern France—and their rescue of over 5,000 Jews during the Holocaust. The Huguenot Protestant villagers sheltered the Jews, and not one villager informed the authorities. The film uses interviews with the rescuers and survivors, newsreel footage, photographs and historical accounts. The filmmaker, Pierre Sauvage, was one of the Jews saved by the village. Study guide available. Note: The film depicts heroism found in “ordinary” individuals and is a prime illustration of humanity’s capacity for goodness.

- Aggie

Yes, they unexcommunicated some virulently anti-Semtic Catholic Bishops, but later stated that the apology offered by one of the Bishops was insufficient. However, as far as I know, he is still a Catholic in good standing. Now they have poured more salt on the wounds.

They will be attending the anti-Semitic hatefest known as Durban II.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said Friday it would attend a U.N. conference on racism next month but hoped for a change in the wording of its final declaration, which some countries view as hostile to Israel.

“People go to conferences to discuss and debate,” said the Vatican’s chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi. “That doesn’t mean we agree with the draft text of the final declaration as it is now.”

Both Italy and the United States have said they will not attend unless the wording of a document they consider hostile to Israel is altered before the gathering starts.

Israel is calling for a boycott of the April 20-24 event but so far only the Jewish state and Canada have said they will not participate.

Critics of the conference say Arab nations plan to use it to attack Israel. They also object to sections of the final declaration they say would limit freedom of religion or speech.

Lombardi said the Vatican’s representative in Geneva had “made it clear that the Vatican is opposed to all forms of discrimination, whether it is against an individual, a religion or a state.”

The United States and Israel walked out of the first U.N. conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, to protest against efforts to pass a resolution comparing Zionism to racism.

That is not good enough for me. I gotta tell you, if the Catholics in this world had to contend with .0001% of the hatred that we Jews endure, and if Israel agreed to attend a high-falutin anti-Catholic conference designed to increase genocidal hatred, they would perhaps understand my feelings at the moment. John Paul II was a blip on the screen. We’re back to business as usual.

- Aggie

What’s the best punishment for a Holocaust-denying Catholic Bishop?

I don’t know if being chased through an airport by an Argentine television crew is absolutely the tops—but it comes pretty close:

A Holocaust-denying bishop flew out of Argentina under a government expulsion order on Tuesday after scuffling with a reporter at the airport.

A local television station showed Richard Williamson raising his fist toward a reporter, then shoving him into a pole with his shoulder as he hurried through Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza international airport to catch a flight for London.

Shake that little girly fist at me, Father, and I’ll cut it off and stuff it down your throat.