...Elsewhere, too, peace is sorely needed: in Sri Lanka only a negotiated solution can put an end to the conflict that causes so much bloodshed; Afghanistan is marked by growing unrest and instability; in the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees...
Pope Benedict is a very conservative man with whom I rarely see eye-to-eye, but I've got to agree with him on these remarks.
And what are we to say of the threat of a war which could strike the people of Iraq, the land of the Prophets, a people already sorely tried by more than twelve years of embargo? War is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations. As the Charter of the United Nations Organization and international law itself remind us, war cannot be decided upon, even when it is a matter of ensuring the common good, except as the very last option and in accordance with very strict conditions, without ignoring the consequences for the civilian population both during and after the military operations.http://www.vatican.v...
In the same speech he had good words for Europe:
Today's Europe, which is at once united and enlarged. Europe has succeeded in tearing down the walls which disfigured her. She has committed herself to planning and creating a new reality capable of combining unity and diversity, national sovereignty and joint activity, economic progress and social justice. This new Europe is the bearer of the values which have borne fruit for two thousand years in an "art" of thinking and living from which the whole world has benefitted.
That's interesting, because Church going has fallen on hard times in Europe, and the fundies in this country are always decrying the poor moral state of Europe. Too much sex and peace, I guess, for the fundamentalists.
I have strong disagreements with the Church I left. But the Catholic Church has been a stalwart on the anti-war issue, and on helping the poor. (It's just that some of their sex-linked policies ... )
Benedict also talked about Zimbabwe, where the Catholic bishops have taken a stand against Mugabe's cruel reign. The Episcopal Church has failed in its moral leadership vis a vis Zimbabwe. As I've written, Kunonga, the Episcopal bishop, was the recipient of stolen property (a very nice estate) from Mugabe, and Nigeria's Peter Akinola "hearts" Kunonga.
Although Mugabe is regarded as evil incarnate by Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic hierarchy, he does have friends elsewhere in the Christian Community. Zimbabwe's Anglican primate, Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, has used his pulpit at St Mary's Cathedral in Harare to support Mugabe and his land reform programme.http://willwhim.blog...He was rewarded by Mugabe with one of the farms, St Marnock's, outside Harare, confiscated from its previous white owner, 25-year-old Marcus Hale. The bishop installed his son in the 2000 acre farmhouse, which overlooks a lake and sweeping fields of wheat and soya. The bishop also evicted 50 black workers and their families to make way for his own staff.
From his pulpit, Kunonga has compared opponents of Mugabe as "dogs against an elephant" and described them as "puppets of the West". During one of his pro-Mugabe sermons, the choir began singing hymns to drown out his words. The choir was subsequently sacked by the bishop along with the cathedral wardens and cathedral council.
So many religious institutions blunt the good they do through their preoccupation with sexual matters. Oh, well.