January 25, 2009
Yikes! The Pope is back
I guess he never left, but he was out of the news for a while. The silence was appreciated, but he's back. Just as America celebrated the impossible dream of Barack Obama's election and inaugural, the Pope says, "Not so fast."
What did the Pope, known as Cardinal Ratzinsger before becoming Pope, do? As if to prove that any organization led exclusively by white, celibate men would have trouble with the American dream articulated by Reverend Joe Lowery, who prayed for us to be "inclusive not exclusive" at the festivities, the Pope, probably still smarting from the fact that despite his best efforts a majority of his American flock voted for Obama, picked on the Jews.
He brought back into the fold, four white bishops who had been expelled from the church. One holds that the Holocaust didn't happen and that the U.S. staged 9-11 to provide a pretext to invade Afghanistan! Whoa Nelly! And we thought Rick Warren was a bad choice. Besides, we don't need a pretext. We attack any country we want to attack.
Here stand two men. Leaders of millions, one, black, reminding us of our past while providing hope for the future; the other, white, exclusive, focused on a shameful past, calling for division between Jew and Catholic.
What a shame. John XXIII gave hope that has been washed away. Let us work to keep hope alive!
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The Pope should be impeached! Seriously, many of us Catholics (those who still hang in there because we love the Church) are appalled at his decision to "forgive" the recalcitrant bishops, and begin praying again for the "conversion" of the Jewish people. Way back when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, and was known as a stern judge in the Vatican of all things Catholic, the National Catholic Reporter used to have a wonderful column of humor which always asked "Does Ratzinger know this?" whenever a situation arose that called for knocking someone or something. Now he does know and he is showing his true nature as he exercises the power of the papacy, which does not in any way resemble that of blessed John XXIII of happy memory! But not to worry, God will not let him have the last word!
-Marliss Rogers | Port Washington, WI | January 28, 2009
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