It seems as though the so-called Bishop of Rome has offended the Muslims. He referred to their practice of Jihad (holy war against Jews, Christians, and other 'idolators') as evil. Amongst the dying words of Mohammed, the founder of Islam, were "All Jews and Christians must die".Does this sound evil to you? Is a hate-filled religion that fosters fear and violence an evil religion? Is a religion that denies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God evil? Is a religion that that has a God who is arbitrary and will damn you on Monday but redeem you on Tuesday evil?
Are the number one outward enemy of Christianity since the middle-ages, who dipped the blood of Christians onto their fez hats...are they evil.
Well, the Pope thought so..until the heathen raged... now he is deeply sorry for the offense.
Here is the text of his apology:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The pastoral visit which I recently made to Bavaria was a deep spiritual experience, bringing together personal memories linked to places well known to me and pastoral initiatives towards an effective proclamation of the Gospel for today.
I thank God for the interior joy which he made possible, and I am also grateful to all those who worked hard for the success of this Pastoral Visit.
As is the custom, I will speak more of this during next Wednesday's general audience.
At this time, I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims.
These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought.
Yesterday, the Cardinal Secretary of State published a statement in this regard in which he explained the true meaning of my words.
I hope that this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect.
Pope Apologizes to Angered Muslims
6 comments:
I gotta say, I had hoped that a German pope would stick to his guns a bit more. In all fairness, Muslims have done an awesome job of being non-violent about this and totally disproving his point...
Actually, what Ratzinger was concerned about was apologizing for the reaction to his offensive words. He was sorry that the muslims reacted to it. Plus, it's apparently not really his position. He loves muslims. Of course, they want to kill him anyway. I wonder if Ratzinger realizes that they wanted to kill him before his comments? After all, he hasn't bowed the knee to Allah and his prophet. Who knows? He may give in yet. Perhaps he's really french and not german?
http://www.faithfreedom.org/
Check out the cartoon on the link. Quite fitting.
Anyone think this may have been a calculated move by the Roman Catholic church? While it may be that every word the pope states in a public forum has been carefully thought out, the U.S. pope, Bernanke, has said some stupid stuff that threw the market in a tizzy. So, I suppose it could go either way.
I must have missed the part in the apology where he said that murder is an acceptable religous tool. If you read the speech and not the parts that either CNN or Faux News told you about, he quoted from an Emperor who said something to the effect of "all that came from Islam has been a detriment to the world," followed by the famous part about "the practice of murdering for their faith is particularly vile." By quoting the emperor, the Pope was quoting on the part about murder, not the part about how muslims are a stench on the land or whatever. Perhaps when he wrote his speech he figured that since it was given in an accademic setting, no one would pay attention to it and he could give longer quotes than just the fragment of a sentence.
His stance now about Islam is no weaker or stronger than a month ago. The Pope and his church are very much ecumenist, even to those outside the bounds of Christianity. But this isn't news, it's been going on for the past 30 or so years.
Either way, obviously you have the whole bias-against-the-pope thing down enough, but really his apology was appropriately sophomoric. Like:
"You're ugly"
"HEY! I take offense at that! Apologise!"
"Ok, I'm sorry you're ugly."
Notliberal:
Too funny!
Gavin:
Too funny!
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