http://www.yperit.cz/Copy%20of%20yperit.cz/gallery%20pages/gallery_pfm_i_5_detail_11_1.htm (Archiv-Version vom 22.04.2005)Strange But True!
'God's rottweiler' leads shortlist
as conclave gathers to elect pope
16 April 2005
Daily Telegraph reports that "After two weeks of daily meetings and discreet lobbying over plates of pasta, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the choice of the "intigristi", or conservative camp, has emerged as the front-runner. Even the "riformisti", the reformers whose luminaries include Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, are now tacitly accepting the possibility that he could become the next pope. Many expect that he will gather sufficient momentum in the first vote to attract the necessary support from wavering cardinals and secure the required two thirds majority within a few days. If Cardinal Ratzinger does fill one of the sets, conservatives keen to preserve the magisterium of John Paul II will be overjoyed, but many liberals will be dismayed.
According to insiders, some in the "riformisti" camp feel that the 78-year-old cardinal would not be the most imaginative choice as his age means that his papacy would be seen as transitional.
The Bavarian-born cardinal, who was himself an influential liberal at the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, has since gained a reputation, some would say unfairly, as "God's rottweiler" for cracking down on dissidents. However, even his detractors admit that he is a courteous and gentle man and an outstanding theologian who may mellow as pope. One senior Vatican prelate said: "None of the candidates would radically change the direction of the church, but they may alter its style. "If Ratzinger became pope, for example, he would continue to receive people of different faiths from all over the world, but he is less likely to bring them together like John Paul II did at international gatherings such as Assisi." [Daily Telegraph reports by Jonathan Petre and Bruce Johnston in Rome (Filed: 16/04/2005)
Do not forget that this rottweiler that 'may' mellow is the same Herr Ratzinger who graduated from Hitler Youth into the ranks of Wermacht during World War II. Today, Ratzinger is the prefect [head] of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [formerly named the Roman Congregation of the Inquisition, the Holy Office].
Of Ratzinger, cultural critic James Carroll writes in 'Constantine's Sword - The Church and the Jews': "Ratzinger is the putative author of Canon 1436.1 of the Code of Canon Law (which along with others like it) were added to the Code of Canon Law only in May 1998, by Pope John Paul II, with an apostolic letter, Ad Tuendam Fidem ["to defend the Faith"]. Ratzinger wrote an accompanying explanation that gave numerous examples of causes for excommunication, such as affirming the right of women to be ordained to the priesthood and questioning the absolute prohibition on sex before marriage...An editorial in the Catholic newspaper The Tablet, published in Britain, commented, "The recent moto proprio Ad Tuendam Fidem, and above all the commentary on it from Cardinal Ratzinger, are clearly designed to shut down debate on matters about which there was much more to be said...Rome's desire to silence theological dissent contradicts the deeply felt commitment to the importance of freedom of speech and intellectual integrity that is characteristic of modern democracies. In the secular world, only dictators silence their opponents and demand unquestioning obedience."
And yes, regarding Assisi, Carroll writes: "When John Paul II convened a congress of world religions at Assisi in 1986, for example, his patent respect for other spiritual leaders seemed to indicate a new level of Church ecumenism, although Vatican officials quickly sought to correct that impression. 'This cannot be the model,' said Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Church theologians who are too respectful of other religions are still disciplined, or even excommunicated...Whatever John Paul II's personal impulses of openness toward other religions amount to, his long tenure - at more than twenty years, he is one of the longest-serving popes - has been devoted to the restoration of the medieval monarchy as the model for Church authority, with tremendous consequences for relations with other faiths.
Short of Inquisition II and burning 'em at the stake, Herr Ratzinger will no doubt demand unquestioning obedience from the faithful, silence opponents, punish heretics or apostates with major excommunication, squash freedom of speech and intellectual integrity, crush ecumenism... but NEVER making amends for the abuses toward the Jews perpetuated by how the Roman Catholic Church conditioned the European population over the centuries to view the Jews as inferiors. Please read Carroll's 'Constantine's Sword' to "see how Catholic medival absolutism exacerbated anti-Jewish religious hatred, fueled new levels of violence, and sponsored an ever more hysterical conversionism, which when up against continued Jewish resistance finally led to modern anti-semitic racism".
Viagra Cleared as Kosher for Passover - THE NEW YORK TIMES Published: April 15, 2005.
A prominent Israeli rabbi has reversed an earlier ban and ruled that the anti-impotency drug Viagra can be made kosher for Passover.
THE CHEAM STANDARD...
Albert Higginbottom of 2, Railway Cottages, Cheam received bad news from Dean Edwin Nosewhistle, the Church of England's representative at Cheam Cathedral this week: the church will be unable to bless his recent civil marriage to Matilda Hawtrey an emergency room nurse at Cheam hospital. Reasons given were that the C of E does not recognize Higginbottom's status as a widower [his first wife of some ten years disappeared without trace while visiting relatives in Jabalpur City when an earthquake struck the city and adjoining areas of Madhya Pradesh, India during 1997], and furthermore Nosewhistle stated, "The church cannot condone an admission by Hawtrey, that she and Higginbottom had been living together happily for several years." In a prepared statement, Nosewhistle continued to say that there are practical limits to the church's tolerance in these matters.
THE ROYAL STANDARD...
Meanwhile, assistants to the Right Reverend Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of the Church of England, continue last minute upgrades to his Grace's best vestments. The Archbishop will be presiding over the C of E's lavish blessing of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles' up coming civil wedding. Charles and Camilla celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of their sordid and often public extra-marital relationship quite recently. It was an affair that cuckolded both Andrew Parker Bowles and destroyed the late Princess of Wales. Bowles, keeping the traditional British stiff upper lip, finally divorced Camilla in 1995. Charles, now conveniently a widower, was divorced from Diana, Princess of Wales in 1996. Diana died in a mysterious hit and run accident in a French underpass one year later.
Bishop David Stancliffe of the Church of England said church rules dictated Prince Charles must atone for committing adultery and he should apologize to Andrew Parker Bowles for breaking up his marriage!
Take a deep breath David, now hold it! Hold it!
THE TAXMEN COMETH
It is no coincidence that Calgary's Roman Catholic Bishop, Fred Henry, is on the receiving end of threats from CCRA to revoke his diocese's tax-exempt charitable status over a pastoral letter on his website that is critical of Paul Martin, a professed Catholic.
No prizes for guessing who put the taxmen hot onto bishop Henry's case...
DOWNTRODDEN UCC MINISTERS UNITE!
A group of thirty United Church clergy in British Columbia and Ontario has taken the first steps toward unionizing the 4,000 pastors in Canada's largest Protestant denomination by inviting the Canadian Auto Workers Union to step in and organize the church. The clergy say their workplace conditions are often wretched and they are claiming psychological and physical abuse, bad working conditions, sweatshop wages and a corporate church that responds to their problems inadequately.
Corporate church? Youbetcha! Wretched working conditions? Wow... times have changed, if only Jesus could have had it so sweet...
