Saturday, February 09, 2008

The Nazi Pope Strikes Again

Once again Pope Benedict XVI has revealed his effort – whether conscious or not – to try to take the Roman Catholic Church back to the bad old days of the Middle Ages and to engender anti-Semitism. The man is, in my opinion, a freaking lunatic and this move clearly shows that he has not cast off his Hitler Youth training and mind set. The College of Cardinals must really have been unconsciously trying to destroy the credibility of the Church (or what’s left of it after the sex abuse scandals) when they elected Ratzinger as the Nazi Pope. Here are some highlights from Time Magazine on Benedict’s latest incredible idiocy (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1710822,00.html):

Bringing back an ancient rite risked reopening ancient wounds. And so after Pope Benedict XVI introduced wider use of the old Latin rite last year, top Vatican officials promised to adjust a Good Friday prayer from the ancient liturgy that had called for the conversion of the Jews. The text of the updated version — released this week in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano — deletes offensive language referring to Jews' "blindness" and the need to "remove the veil from their hearts." But the substance is left in place: "Let us pray for the Jews," the prayer says, according to an unofficial translation from Latin. "May the Lord our God illuminate their hearts so that they may recognize Jesus Christ savior of all men."

The wounds, according to top Jewish leaders and rabbis, have been reopened. They say the prayer, which in reality had never been scrapped completely, recalls past centuries of forced conversions and a lingering incomprehension of their faith. Late Wednesday, having had 24 hours to absorb the news and study the text, the Italian Rabbinical Assembly announced they were suspending the decades-long Jewish-Catholic dialogue for a "pause of reflection" in light of the Good Friday prayer. Rome's chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni told reporters that the prayer brings Catholic-Jewish relations "back 43 years” . . . It raises questions about just what is the "image of the Jewish people for the Church," said Di Segni. "It's an old question: What are the Jews doing here on earth? If this [prayer] is the requirement for dialogue, it is intolerable. Evidently, the Church is having problems rediscovering the foundations of its orthodoxy."

No comments: