AmericanPapist Comments
This is what happens when a person or institution takes it on the chin for so long without responding; when it does respond, he or it overplays.
Terrorism is word with a specific meaning. The attacks on the pope were any number of things, including a couple of forms of mortal sins, but they were not terrorist attacks.
Yes, but L'Observatore Romano is not how the Vatican officially releases statements. It is a newspaper. And the article in question is actually an editorial obviously written by someone who was very angry about the event.
I was upset by how the press characterized the paper as being synonymous with the "Vatican" even proclaiming the paper to the "official mouthpiece".
But that is not true. I can remember about a year ago a ruckus about some unorthodox remarks being published with regards to evolution.
But Tom you mentioned how bad things have been this past week. Why blog on this topic and not on the Italian bishop who received a bullet in the mail last Friday for not supporting gay marriage?
The only blogs linked to that story seemed to be either Commonweal or gay news blogs. I wondered about the reticence in the larger Catholic blog community.
SS: you greatly underestimate the authority of l'OR. Greatly.
Hey, if that guy is saying that the Church is still the same Church that She has been since the time of Jesus Christ, then I would say "Thank you--that's kind of our mission. Glad to know it's getting through even to you." Thanks be to God that His Church is still standing, even though the Gates of Hell rail against it. (and so it goes..even unto the end of time)
Foolish mortals, don't you know, only Bush can decide what is or is not terrorism.
Of course attacks on the church, trying to silence the church on its stand against homosexuality, is not terrorism; unless they were gay Muslims.
From A Non's sarcasm, I would say he suffers from what Michelle Malkin terms Bush Derangement Syndrome. The antidote is a healthy Catholic appreciation of what our Western Civilization is up against with the Muslim threat by studying history.
Spot on about the misuse of the word "terrorism." To be honest, the bombastic editorial sounds a bit like Cardinal Martino and his over-the-top statements. Granted, the Vatican has never been very good at communications, but recently there seems to have been a real decline.
Misuse? Let's look at the definitions:
ter·ror·ism /ˈtɛrəˌrɪzəm/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ter-uh-riz-uhm] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun 1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.
2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.
The first one clearly is true in this situation. The threats (of life) against a Prince of the Church for political purposes (to get him to be silenced, so homsexual beliefs can be put into law without disruption) clearly is there. It's terrorism.
A Non: There were death threats issued against a Prince of the Church during a *televized* concert outside of St. John Lateran? Not a very smart terrorist. Can you point me to the death threats in the news reports about the concert?
Well i'm Italian and it is true that there is a great deal of tension going on between the church and SOME parts of the Italian society (mainly radical left groups). I have heard the comments made by this presenter, the "incriminated" lines were: 1) the church has never evolved and 2) the Italian church denied the funerals to a man who died by volontarily and strongly asking euthenisia (don't know if I spelt it correctly), so he said its unfair that murderers and mafia bosses get a funeral and this guy can't.
To be honest the osservatore romano is not new to these kind of exaggerated comments and luckily the REALLY official vatican spokesman Padre Lombardo said that everyone should work to alleviate any form of tension! thank you Padre!!!
And as a side note: the organizers of the concert (trade unions) totally disassociated themselves from the comments made by the stupid presenter, and Padre Lombardo was very glad about it!
Commenting by HaloScan
