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	<title>Comments on: A little context, please</title>
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	<pubDate>Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:33:53 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>By: gs</title>
		<link>http://www.dinocrat.com/archives/2007/09/22/controversial/#comment-301907</link>
		<dc:creator>gs</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 22 Sep 2007 22:03:00 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description>The Pope is an evil man who incites peaceable Muslims to do bad things.  

&lt;i&gt;Oops!&lt;/i&gt;  I mean he incites peaceable Muslims to do things which would be bad if done by nonMarxist Westerners. /sarc
********
That the Catholic Church pursues its own interests--not the Bush administration's, not the Daily Mail's--does not appear to fit the Daily Mail's narrative.  

Other recent papal &lt;a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=a4cc2155-8cb9-48f9-8c31-c6cf677cb41e&#38;&#38;Headline=Pope+refuses+to+meet+Rice%3a+report" rel="nofollow"&gt;news&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;blockquote&gt;Pope Benedict XVI refused to meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in August, saying he was on holiday, an Italian newspaper reported on Wednesday.  (p)Rice "made it known to the Vatican that she absolutely had to meet the pope" to boost her diplomatic "credit" ahead of a trip to the Middle East, the Corriere della Sera daily reported without citing its sources.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7002988.stm" rel="nofollow"&gt;More&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;blockquote&gt;There are at least two reasons why Pope Benedict may have decided peremptorily against a private meeting with Ms Rice.  (p)First, it was Ms Rice who just before the outbreak of the Iraq war in March 2003 made it clear to a special papal envoy sent from Rome, Cardinal Pio Laghi, that the Bush administration was not interested in the views of the late Pope on the immorality of launching its planned military offensive.  (p)Secondly, the US has responded in a manner considered unacceptable at the Vatican to the protection of the rights of Iraqi Christians under the new Iraqi constitution. &lt;/blockquote&gt;Furthermore, in the speech Dinocrat quoted, Benedict said:&lt;blockquote&gt;In the economic sphere, for example, there is a tendency to view financial gain as the only good, thus eroding the internal ethos of commerce to the point that even profit margins suffer.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Although I take issue with much in it, the Pope's speech differs in kind from the civilizational illness that the Daily Mail article represents. 

(Of course, I support Benedict's endorsement of religious freedom, but even that raises a question: &lt;i&gt;...all &lt;b&gt;authentically&lt;/b&gt; religious traditions must be allowed to manifest their own identity publicly, free from any pressure to hide or disguise it.&lt;/i&gt;  Although common sense dictates that there is a difference between an authentic religion and a cult, who decides?)</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Pope is an evil man who incites peaceable Muslims to do bad things.  </p>
<p><i>Oops!</i>  I mean he incites peaceable Muslims to do things which would be bad if done by nonMarxist Westerners. /sarc<br />
********<br />
That the Catholic Church pursues its own interests&#8211;not the Bush administration&#8217;s, not the Daily Mail&#8217;s&#8211;does not appear to fit the Daily Mail&#8217;s narrative.  </p>
<p>Other recent papal <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=a4cc2155-8cb9-48f9-8c31-c6cf677cb41e&amp;&amp;Headline=Pope+refuses+to+meet+Rice%3a+report" rel="nofollow">news</a>:<br />
<blockquote>Pope Benedict XVI refused to meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in August, saying he was on holiday, an Italian newspaper reported on Wednesday.  (p)Rice &#8220;made it known to the Vatican that she absolutely had to meet the pope&#8221; to boost her diplomatic &#8220;credit&#8221; ahead of a trip to the Middle East, the Corriere della Sera daily reported without citing its sources.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7002988.stm" rel="nofollow">More</a>:<br />
<blockquote>There are at least two reasons why Pope Benedict may have decided peremptorily against a private meeting with Ms Rice.  (p)First, it was Ms Rice who just before the outbreak of the Iraq war in March 2003 made it clear to a special papal envoy sent from Rome, Cardinal Pio Laghi, that the Bush administration was not interested in the views of the late Pope on the immorality of launching its planned military offensive.  (p)Secondly, the US has responded in a manner considered unacceptable at the Vatican to the protection of the rights of Iraqi Christians under the new Iraqi constitution. </p></blockquote>
<p>Furthermore, in the speech Dinocrat quoted, Benedict said:<br />
<blockquote>In the economic sphere, for example, there is a tendency to view financial gain as the only good, thus eroding the internal ethos of commerce to the point that even profit margins suffer.</p></blockquote>
<p>Although I take issue with much in it, the Pope&#8217;s speech differs in kind from the civilizational illness that the Daily Mail article represents. </p>
<p>(Of course, I support Benedict&#8217;s endorsement of religious freedom, but even that raises a question: <i>&#8230;all <b>authentically</b> religious traditions must be allowed to manifest their own identity publicly, free from any pressure to hide or disguise it.</i>  Although common sense dictates that there is a difference between an authentic religion and a cult, who decides?)</p>
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