Over at OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY, Robert Tagorda linked and excerpted to a review of a book by the new pope ( Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Century. By Joseph Ratzinger. An Interview with Peter Seewald. Ignatius Press. 301 pp. $12.95 paper.); here's an excerpt which seems to be the Leftist line on Benedict; (it's by Thomas D. Williams; WIlliams wrote:
“Cardinal Ratzinger presents a scenario of a shrinking Church of minority status, more concerned with creating small pockets of authentic Christian living than influencing the course of society.”
THIS STATEMENT IS AS WRONG ABOUT BENEDICT AS OTHERS WERE ABOUT JPII.
When JPII was selected many thought that the RC Church was signaling detente with the USSR (because as Cardinal Wojtyla JPII had coexisted with Soviet tyranny in Poland.)
When JPII was selected many thought that the RC Church was signaling detente with the USSR (because as Cardinal Wojtyla JPII had coexisted with Soviet tyranny in Poland.)
As Michael Ledeen wrote:
We were in Rome when John Paul II was elected Pope, and, like most people, I didn't know much about him. Most of the commentary at that time described the Conclave's decision in political terms, and Karol Wojtyla was said to be a "detente pope," a gesture of peace toward the Soviets. I went over to Communist-party headquarters in Via delle Botteghe Oscure to ask them what they thought of it, and one of the real hardline Stalinists put it nicely: "Well," he said, "at least our Polish comrades won't have him around to (and here he used a colorful Roman phrase that roughly means 'give them a hard time.'). The Communist knew what he was talking about, and the scribblers and kibbitzers didn't.Instead, the world got a GREAT COLD WARRIOR who inspired Poles and gave them the courage to challenge Soviet tyranny.
I expect Pope Benedict to wage a SUCCESSFUL battle against relativism and THEREBY ENLARGE THE CHURCH ONCE AGAIN IN EUROPE.
You NEVER win by appeasing your enemy; relativism is the enemy; Benedict knows this and he knows that he must defeat relativism to win back Europe.
I pray he does. I expect him to.
UPDATE: more HERE - (a fascinating and wide-ranging audio interview IN ENGLISH with Benedict when he was Cardinal; he discusses relativism and the liturgy and many other things; hat tip KJ at THE CORNER).
Relativism? What's that? Can you define it? Can you define the goals against it? It sounds suspiciously like the War on Drugs and the War on Terror. The enemy is poorly defined and the government (and it's puppet-masters, the wealthy industrialists) actually collaborates to make the problem worse. There is not interest in stopping "terrorism," but there's a lot of interest in crushing dissent and criticism of industrial capaitalism. As for the War on Drugs, the government is responsibile for the recent drug epidemics. How else is it possible for our borders to be inundated with the stuff? Plus, there are volumes of proof that the CIA etc. is involved in this. Don't expect the "liberal" MSM to cover this.
ReplyDeleteWhat is relativism? You don't define it, not does the Pope. The fact remains that everything is defined in realtion -relative to- everything else. Context is critical. There may be an objective reality, but morality is situational and contextual. Just ask GWB. It's relatively moral to be careless about killing civilians as long as they are non-white and in a poor country. It's not moral to do the same in his own country. GWB morality is therefore relative to his ability to wield power. If that makes your head explode, well, just go with it.
relativism:
ReplyDelete3 hairs on a bald head -- far too few
3 hairs in your soup -- far too many
but who could expect a moral relativist to be able to accept a definition of it?
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