i'm put in mind of a line from carlise floyd's "susannah" forgive? i've forgot what that word means... http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/02/23/pope.book.reut/index.html ------- Pope: Gay marriage is 'evil' ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- Homosexual marriages are part of "a new ideology of evil" that is insidiously threatening society, Pope John Paul says in his newly published book. In "Memory and Identity," the Pope also calls abortion a "legal extermination" comparable to attempts to wipe out Jews and other groups in the 20th century. He also reveals that he is convinced the Turkish gunman who shot him in 1981 did not act alone and suggests that the former Communist Bloc may have been behind the plot to kill him. The 84-year-old Pontiff's book, a highly philosophical and intricate work on the nature of good and evil, is based on conversations with philosopher friends in 1993 and later with some of his aides. In one section about the role of lawmakers, the Pope takes another swipe at gay marriages when he refers to "pressures" on the European Parliament to allow them. "It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man," he writes. The Pope's fifth book for mass circulation, issued by Italian publisher Rizzoli, sparked controversy in Germany and elsewhere after Jewish groups protested against leaked excerpts comparing the Holocaust to abortion. In at least two sections of the book, the Pope talks about the Nazi attempt to exterminate Jews and the wholesale slaughter of political opponents by Communist regimes after World War Two. 'Legal extermination' In following paragraphs he says that legally elected parliaments in formerly totalitarian countries were today allowing what he called new forms of evil and new exterminations. "There is still, however a legal extermination of human beings who have been conceived but not yet born," he writes. "And this time we are talking about an extermination which has been allowed by nothing less than democratically elected parliaments where one normally hears appeals for the civil progress of society and all humanity," he writes. In Germany, a leader of the country's Central Council of Jews called the comparison unacceptable. At a news conference presenting the book, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's top doctrinal official, dismissed the Jewish charges. Ratzinger said the Pope "was not trying to put the Holocaust and abortion on the same plane" but only warning that evil lurked everywhere, "even in liberal political systems." In another section, the Pope describes at length the assassination attempt on May 13, 1981, when Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shot and nearly killed him in St Peter's Square. Of Agca, the Pope writes the assassination attempt was "not his initiative, someone else masterminded it and someone else commissioned it." Two trials in the early 1980s failed to prove prosecutors' suspicions that Bulgaria's secret services had masterminded a plot to kill the Pope on behalf of the Soviet Union. At the time the Polish Pope was a strong supporter of the Solidarity trade union in his native Poland and the Soviet Union saw Solidarity as a threat to the stability of the communist bloc. The Pope says the assassination attempt against him was perhaps "the last convulsion" of the ideologies of the 20th century -- a clear reference to the Communist bloc.
What was the name of the one of the most recent Clancy Books in which the Soviet Union tried to off the Holy Father? The Pope, sorry devout Roman Catholics, needs to be FAR more concerned with the young members of his flock being raped by too many wayward priests. Gay Marriage and abortion linked to the evil of the Holocaust is a tenious if not preposterous comparison. I certainly udnerstand the church's stance on abortion, that is an arguement of "when life begins"...but gay marriage??
If gay marriage is part of the "ideology of evil", then the Pope is part of the "ideology of old and meaningless".
yeah...there are LOTS of Catholics who would disagree with you. you may disagree with him...but the Pope is hardly irrelevant.
yes, this is all very logical I'm sure the Pope, who for the past four years, has been suffering from late stage Parkinsons (a condition of which is advanced dementia) along with various other ailments, has probably in his rare moments of lucidity been writing about the satanic, society destroying practices about of gay marriage and latex condoms. Interesting side question: How morally culpable are the Pope & his bishops, etc, who inveigh against the evils of condom use in areas like Africa, which feature cripplingly high HIV rates? I feel that kind of thing is so irresponsible, that you could argue it is on par with murder from a moral point of view. Edit: should clarify - more like assisted suicide than murder in the sense that most would concieve it.
If you are not Catholic, then why would you care what the Pope says. If you are Catholic, you probably agree with him. Catholics disagreeing with "alternative" lifestyles is nothing new. Marriage in the catholic church is meant as a very strong and devoted union between a "man and a women".
Because his statements (or in this instance, the interpretations of his handlers as he is suffering from advanced Parkinson's) have a huge impact on the world in which we live and the consequences are suffered by all of us, Catholic or not.
Not to derail the thread but, If this is true, and this is a sincere question. Then why are priests and nuns not allowed to marry?
Nice overgeneralization. Randomly I work with 8 other catholics. None of us agree with the Pope. Nor does my mom or sister. Trust me, there are a lot of Catholics who think the church is out of touch with reality.
What do you think, basso? Do you disagree with your president here? AND his pope? I love this quote from my friend Tony: "I hope that twenty years from now conservatives can look their gay friends in the eyes and apologize for how they voted in 2004."
Word, Cohen. "Is it just me or has the Catholic Church gotten a whole lot sexier lately?" - David Cross
