Pope Laments Increase in Anti-Semitism

[DemsUnite]

COLOGNE, Germany - German-born Pope Benedict XVI on Friday became the second pope to visit a synagogue, entering to the haunting tones of a ram's horn, praying before a Holocaust memorial and lamenting a rise in anti-Semitism.

"We need to show respect for one another and to love one another," Benedict said, pressing a theme of interfaith understanding that has marked his first foreign trip as pope.

The hourlong stop, for which Cologne's Jews stood and applauded, was filled with significance for the 78-year-old Benedict, who grew up in Nazi Germany. He called those times "the darkest period of German and European history."

He made no mention of his own trials, when he was enrolled in the Hitler Youth as a teenager and later deserted from the German army near the end of the war.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050819/ap_on_re_eu/pope_world_youth;_ylt=Aie_BFTa.LRR5HnG4EJEAeGs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-

[MindPilot]

1. Breaking: Rush Limbaugh denouces blowhardism on talk radio

:eyes:

[SteppingRazor]

2. I hate being cynical, but...

Politically, this is a move he had to make.

[kiraboo]

3. Well lhe's going to have to make a greater effort than that.

I'm reading "Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews" which makes a pretty convincing case for the inevitability of the holocaust given the history of the Church and its leaders. A few statements a year by the pope isn't going to change anything.

[MindPilot]

4. You're right; this looks like such an insincere, empty gesture.

Much like something of which Rove would approve.

[Rich Hunt]

8. are you really asking for this again?

Are you asking again for me to tell you the story of my family, of how anti-Catholic bigots right here in the United States have stalked, slandered and hunted to death Irish Catholics right here in America?

Do I have to tell you again how a craven Protestant conspiracy hunted liberal Democratic Catholics and attempted to slander and drive them out of the party?

Are you asking me again to tell you that the Catholic church, like many places, was entirely appropriated during that era?

Are you asking me to tell you again who the REAL anti-Semites were and are? 'Cos I got an earful when I went to college, let me tell you. I never heard a word of anti-Semitism until I went to college. For Christ's sake, there are Jews in my family.

Are you asking me to remind you once again of the vicious and bloody history of anti-Catholic bigotry in the Protestant-dominated United States of America?

Why this obsession with the Catholic church?

Are you really asking me to post this for the tenth time today?

What is going on here? If you really want to cover something up that badly, you shouldn't even try, but I guess Oranges don't know how to stop "confessing" by acting out instead of admitting - verbally, in plain English, what they know.

Gaslighting: insisting that something is so, acting deaf and dumb when challenged.

Gaslighting: putting your fingers in your ears, and pretending "I can't hear you, I can't hear you"

Gaslighting: it's the Orangey way of life

Stop obsessing, stalking and slandering the Irish Catholics behind closed doors. Stop harassing, stalking, blacklisting and gaslighting our families. You stop this oppressive conspiracy now, confess to your vicious witch hunting campaign against innocent people, or I'll keep posting about it.

[kiraboo]

9. Please read the book I mentioned before you get all worked up.

Friend, the Catholic Church was the only church in Europe for centuries. It's evolution was Europe's social and civil evolution. Deny it all you want, you only make yourself ridiculous. And consider this: simply the fact that there exists a movement to "demonize" Catholics does not mean that the history of the Church should not be held up to critical scrutiny.

For the record, I was raised a Catholic, was married to a Catholic in a Catholic Church. I believe in God. I believe in the value of the Church. And my sister married a Jewish man right after her conversion to the Jewish faith. I have therefore a whole wing of Jewish relatives. This more than anything has led me to research and ponder the antisemitism that passes for intellectual thought among my Catholic inlaws and other Catholics I have met. Does this mean I believe all Catholics are antisemitic? Secretly? No. But I am willing to take a look at the ugly past of the Church. I don't find it threatening. Do you?

[onager]

11. Jebus, Rich! Obsess much?

Obviously we're not slandering anyone "behind closed doors." We're honestly discussing Catholicism Inc. on a public message board.

And I haven't heard anybody mention "Irish" Catholics especially. I was complaining about the Popes, who were mostly Italian Catholics, I believe. If you have a complaint about the treatment of Irish Catholics, maybe you should bitch to your fellow believers, the Protestants. As an atheist, I don't have a god in this fight. I think one religion is just as silly as another.

As for your threat to keep posting about it...

:rofl:

You do realize there's an IGNORE feature, don't you? Not that I would put you on ignore. Your posts are far too entertaining, in a weird, monomaniacal, ranting, obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive sort of way.

[lateo]

5. Yea...he was hoping homophobia was on the increase....

Guess they will have to work harder...

[Orsino]

6. But is he willing to admit that Judaism is just as good as Christiantiy?

If not, then he should stop lamenting what he's promoting.

[David__77]

7. He thinks, "oh, they're the damned, but let's not be 'anti-Semitic.'"

Anti-semitism in inherent in his ideology.

[Mountainman]

10. But he is just ecstatic about the rise in homophobia

[onager]

12. Hey, cut the One True Church some slack...

You do realize that Benedict is the SECOND Pope to ever visit a synagogue! The first was John Paul II.

Why, since the founding of The Corporation, that works out to one Papal visit per millenium!

Progress is being made, I tell ya!

:rofl: