Pope Benedict the XXXXVVVVIII or whatever

[qwertyMike]

Quoted some geek ffom 600 years ago
"Russia's religious leaders about Pope's speech

The address by Benedict XVI, in which he quoted Byzantine Emperor Paleolog's criticism of Islam, has provoked indignation in the Islamic world and encouraged Russia's religious leaders to speak up.
Russian Muslims reminded the Pope of his responsibility and the international importance of his speeches, while the Orthodox and Jewish clergy thought the reaction of Muslims over-emotional.
Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin, head of the Central Muslim Board of Russia, said religious leaders should be more careful with their words in current conditions and in an "extremely complicated world situation".
The Russian Council of Muftis issued a special statement saying an academic address by a person "vested with high responsibility and exerting influence on people" should be free of "ill-considered formulas and quotations".
Considering Islamic outrage justified, the Council called on Russian Muslims to "regard the situation calmly and with consideration," just as in the case of the cartoon scandal.
Orthodox Bishop Mark of Yegoryevsk told the popular daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the reaction of Muslims to the Pope's address was too sensitive. The concept of jihad the Pope referred to "is more a relic of the thinking of the Middle Ages than an element of modern Islam," he said.
Deacon Andrei Kurayev, a professor at the Moscow Theological Academy, said the Islamic world's reaction to the quotation from "a well known Byzantine source" by "Professor Ratzinger" was "inadequate". "

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20060918/54031013.html
Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada

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Well the Empress of Dublin stated 200 years before:
"Let's Have a Pint of Guiness". He wondered who the Moooslims were and didn't give a shit about the (then female) Pope.

Bejeesus

[DianeG5385]

1. I can't believe how different he is from JohnPaul II

He's like a throwback to Pius the VI. He seems so not dynamic. When JPII was Pope, you knew he was the man. This guy Benedict, I don't know....

[Erika]

2. Ratz dirtied it big time

At the time the world desperately needs people of peace like Ghandi or Martin, Ratz and W emerge.

[Bucky]

3. Gotcha, qwertyMike. But "XXXXVVVVIII" is supposed to be what, 63?

[qwertyMike]

5. That's my age

As I recall :)

Could be wrong though (drool)

As for Popes, well John 23 seemed OK - but are they relevant?

Celibate old men looking after the Vatican Bank and choirboys.

I've no idea why they deserve such attention.

My God's pretty laid back: "I gave you Life , and Free Will", and boy I am enjoying the show.

Duchess of Dublin

[Kutjara]

4. I'd love to see an observation on Christianity written by an Islamic...

...scholar of Manuel II's time. Remember, by the dawn of the 15th Century, Muslims had been fending off increasingly ludicrous attacks by sundry ragtag bands of "Crusaders" who were, by Saracen standards, uncouth, ill-educated, drunk, filthy and barbaric. Compared to the sophisticated urbanity of the Persians, the Crusaders were like the mosh-pit at a Motley Crue concert, only a million times bigger and uglier.

Soon after Manuel's time, the Crusaders got tired of the long trek to the "Holy Land" and decided to start sacking Byzantium instead. In fact, Christians did more damage to the great city than any Muslim ever did. The Ottomans understood the value of the city as a cultural center; Christians just saw rich plunder. So Muslims of the time could have echoed Manuel's statement right back at him, only with more evidence to back it up.

Looking back over the long years at an imaginary Islamic scholar, sitting in his study sometime around the year 1400, ruminating on the character of the Christians he saw riding roughshod over the Middle East, raping and pillaging in the name of God, I can think that he would have dipped his quill in purple-black ink, put the tip to a new piece of parchment and written, "what a bunch of cunts."

[Hardrada]

6. The Crusades were also carried out internally in Europe

against supposed heretics such as the Cathars in southern France with all the accompanying sieges, and rape and slaughter. Murdering fellow Europeans for this military form of the Inquisition seemed to work though. Have you met any of the Cathari lately?

[Kutjara]

7. Good point. And lets not forget the "purging"...

...of Protestants by Mother Church during the Counterreformation. Lots of bloodletting, rapine, burning and pillaging there. All in the name of peace-loving Christianity.

[Hardrada]

8. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

was a lot of fun too. And the exiled Huguenots ended up many places, among them Prussia from where their descendants with names like von Francois came back to France as officers with the German armies.

[Kutjara]

9. My crowd of Hugenots settled in Ireland...

...which is why the Guerin branch of the family speak with a brogue.

[Hardrada]

10. Which part?

Interesting I should accidentally mention events relevant to your ancestry.

[Kutjara]

11. Scattered all around the country now,...

...but the original concentrations seem to have settled in and around Tipperary, which is where most of them still seem to be.

I think most families with European ancestry find that some wing or other was chased across the Continent for religious, political or military reasons at one time or another. That's what makes the European far right so ludicrous. They don't seem to realize that the history of the continent is one of migration, interbreeding and assimilation. So all those 'pure' Aryans are just as much a bunch of mongrels as the rest of us.

[bloom]

12. I have some Mennonite ancestors who were run off

in the 1500's/1600's for the "sin" of believing that people should decide for themselves - as adults - whether to be baptized or not.

[Hardrada]

13. Probably some of my Lutheran forebears

who were doing some of the chasing! And now I am an atheist who sometimes thinks there is some kind of "force."