In the midst of apologizing for abuses of children by Catholic priests, Pope Benedict XVI used his public comments to blame liberal secularism for threatening the Church and society. The Pope appears to be joining former Prime Minister Tony Blair and other leaders (here and here) campaigning against the scourge of seclurism — even as he apologizes for the widespread abuses of his church. It is astonishing to watch the expanding campaign against secularists, a rather unlikely group for villification. It appears that the scandal of pedophilic priests is only a distraction from the real threat to society — people who want society guided by civic rather than religious principles.
The Pope warned the Irish that “prosperity has undoubtedly brought material comfort to many, but in its wake secularism has also begun to encroach and leave its mark.”
He cautioned that the Church is still needed to show people how to live their lives because without it “relativism takes its place: instead of being governed by principles, political choices are determined more and more by public opinion, values are overshadowed by procedures and targets, and indeed the very categories of good and evil, and right and wrong, give way to the pragmatic calculation of advantage and disadvantage.”
The letter itself, while not conceding guilt, is remarkable in its denouncing of Irish bishops entangled in the scandal. The Pope decried the “sinful and criminal acts and the way the church authorities in Ireland dealt with them”.
The letter also states that an apostolic visitation (or Papal investigation), will be carried out at a “certain diocese” in Ireland, as well as in seminaries and religious congregations.
He did, however, state “I recognise how difficult it was to grasp the extent and complexity of the problem, to obtain reliable information and to make the right decisions in the light of conflicting expert advice.” This is a bit curious since these bishops clearly had enough evidence to call the police — like any other organization or institution.
For the full story, click here.
Byron:
“Likewise I don’t think there is a golden mean between freedom and tyranny, you are either free or not free. There can be no middle ground.”
******************
You’ve got the parameters too narrow. Freedom, my dear Byron, is the Golden Mean between licentiousness and repression.
Like Bush and his Cabal of Criminals, this Hilter Youth doesn’t subscribe to “the buck stops here” or the rule wherein one must take responsibility for one’s actions. If anything is a true threat to humanity, it’s organized religion.
What a tool.
The Pope sez: “prosperity has undoubtedly brought material comfort to many, but in its wake secularism has also begun to encroach and leave its mark.”
What he’s really complaining about is the loss of power the Catholic Church has suffered in Ireland. It used to be that the Irish bishops could say “no divorce, no abortion, no contraception” and the Dail would tug its collective forelock and pass laws to conform with the bishops’ demands. Doesn’t happen any more. People are asking “why should a bunch of professional virgin bachelors have anything to say about divorce and contraception?” The Dail has passed laws allowing divorce and contraception. That’s why the Pope is whining about “secularism.”
Of course it is far easier to blame others (make others scapegoat) than accepting responsibility. And, in the case of the Roman Catholic Church that would mean blaming secularism (atheism) for the crimes of pedophile priests. Blaming others for one’s own misfortunes, have we not seen this before?
AY/BUDDHA:
No, beer is life 🙂 Just ask Gyges.
Byron,
I like mushrooms. The ones that don’t kill you or make you hallucinate. The point is that very little is truly black and white. Polar extremes are just that: extremes. Most things are gray. The trick is to find the shade you can live with. If it tastes good and has no or minimal effects? That’s all the better. If it has a benefit (like opening one’s mind/keeping you alive/making that substandard dish fine dining)? That’s just gravy. Mushroom gravy to be precise.
Hemlock Byron, Hemlock Tea is a must.
Buddha:
do mean you don’t like mushrooms and think they are poison or are you talking about actual poisonous mushrooms or are you talking about mind altering mushrooms?
Buddha Is Laughing
“For example there is no golden mean between food and poison.”
One word.
Mushrooms.
==============================================================
Okay, everybody has to got to admit that was a perfect averment!
Buddha … you just gave me a break from being pissed at the Pope … it was a serendipitous moment ranking right up there with the puppies.
” I don’t think there is a golden mean between freedom and tyranny, you are either free or not free. There can be no middle ground. “…..Byron.
*******
So very true!
“For example there is no golden mean between food and poison.”
One word.
Mushrooms.
mESPO:
re golden mean. I haven’t quite reconciled that one yet. Doesn’t it depend on what the golden mean is between? For example there is no golden mean between food and poison. Likewise I don’t think there is a golden mean between freedom and tyranny, you are either free or not free. There can be no middle ground.
Byron:
“And all this time I thought you were a tax and spend democrat …”
***********
Like most everything else, it is excess and obsession that make an idea undesirable, not the idea itself. The Golden Mean philosophy still has much merit.
Mespo:
By the way I am reading Cicero’s prosecution of Verres and it is quite good. Man he can tear someone a new as . . . le and not crack a sweat.
I haven’t even finished yet and I think Verres should be crucified.
“The Pope warned the Irish that “prosperity has undoubtedly brought material comfort to many, but in its wake secularism has also begun to encroach and leave its mark.””
This is all I need to know about this, so it is better to be impoverished and live in misery? So much for the Church supporting human life on earth. But then what do you expect from someone schooled in socialism at such an early age? Hitler and his national socialists ruined an entire young generation of Germans with that bull sh . . . and we see the result in a statement like this.
Mespo:
“Author Frank Herbet wrote that, “Wealth is a tool of freedom ….””
“Freedom, it seems, requires at least a platform of material success to survive, if not a certain haughtier.”
And all this time I thought you were a tax and spend democrat 🙂
“It is astonishing to watch the expanding campaign against secularist, a rather unlikely group for vilification.”
(…)
“The Pope warned the Irish that “prosperity has undoubtedly brought material comfort to many, but in its wake secularism has also begun to encroach and leave its mark.”
***************
Material success and skepticism are the historical (and historic) foes of tyranny, whether spiritual or political.
Author Frank Herbet wrote that, “Wealth is a tool of freedom ….” And G. K. Chesterton observed derisively, but with inadvertent insight, that “… the rich have always objected to being governed at all.” Freedom, it seems, requires at least a platform of material success to survive, if not a certain haughtier.
Dictators are keenly aware of the potential “mischief” of those skeptical of their dogma. Stalin famously said, “Ideas are far more powerful than guns. We don’t allow our enemies to have guns, why should we allow them to have ideas?”
And in likely the most threatening challenge to the Pope’s spiritual authority, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes reminded us of what dictators (both spiritual and temporal) have known- and fought- for eons: “Truth is whatever survives the cleansing fires of skepticism after they have burned away error and superstition. The healthy growth of civilization depends on skepticism more than it does on faith.”
Though I lack the insight of our host, in this instance, it is not astonishing to me why the Pope finds the confluence of these forces troubling and lashes out against them. Destitution combined with obsequiousness is the classic recipe for all manner of slavery.
On my Mother grave and she was cremated, I would still say this to the Pope. UP YOURS. The Dick Cheny, Karl Rove school of Blame.
How this guy has any creditability left is beyond me.
His personal valet is getting gay hookers and he knows nothing; children in his old parish were being defiled and he knew nothing. In fact, he blames secular values. Really? Secular values? I don’t see any secular organization defending itself from thousands of child molestation and child rape claims.
Let us not ignore the part that the fear of death plays in this war of words and ideas.
It is well documented that issues like peak oil, global warming, and the like, are effected by a subconscious fear of death.
That plays out as a script where the secular side exposes the dangers to society, and society recoils in fear.
The Pope-o-sphere, the non-secular, are always promising freedom from this fear of death, saying no matter what we gotcha covered, so vast numbers of the pope-u-lation run to the arms of religion.
We should realize that all truth is acceptable, whether religious or secular.
But secular truth can lose ground to the fears we harbor which secular government cultivates sometimes.
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2010/03/peek-at-peak-oil-catastrophe.html