Vamelot has the worst record of abuse against "other" in history. To be a member of The boyzclub, you sure have a problem. Why nobody questions Buddist monks- their way of living is based on their belief system, not economy.

P.S. Daddy fired you, remember?

I am personally disappointed that the Pope did not take a more hardline stance on Pro-choice Catholic politicians who presented themselves to receive communion. I noticed in news accounts that John Kerry received communion at the Mass today. Nearly 46 million abortions have occured since Roe v Wade became law in 1973. This continual uninterrupted genocide is sapping the very life and future of our country. Please American Bishops take a stand for the unborn.

And God who reads all hearts knows what is in all our hearts. No one can enter the Kingdom if they murder (abortion, death penalty, unjust war), practice homosexuality, divorce and remarriage, contraception (fornication), steal, cheat, etc...
All issues are important and JUST ONE OF THEM CAN KEEP YOU OUT OF THE KINGDOM! No excuse.

Thomas Reese:

Despite the Pope's wider agenda which you cite, the question remains: When has the National Conference of Catholic Bishops cautioned American Catholics that their souls' salvations may be jeopardized for not supporting its stand on issues *other* than abortion? You may pretend that that there's some wiggle room in that wider agenda, but the message comes across loud and clear to my 80 year old Catholic mother: vote Republican.

In addition, though I'm not an avid viewer of EWTN (the nationally broadcast Catholic television network), from what I have seen of its programing, the myopia you attribute to the secular media could certainly be fairly seen to be shared by that that media outlet as well.

Benedict like many of us suffers from the Three B Syndrome i.e. he was Bred, Born and Brainwashed in his religion. For this reason, he is unable to think past the shackles put upon him by the likes of Paul, Mark, Matthew, Luke and John.

The wishful thinking done by these five scribes approximately 2000 years ago continued the embellishment and fiction tradition of the Jewish scribes. The locals paid for a good story of myth and imminent second coming. There was no money in the truth but now we know the truth and it boils down to two simple statements, Do No Harm and Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself.

Time to pink slip the pope, bishops and priests!!!!

Well, whatever they did, Bgone, it hasn't seemed to slow up JJ any, but made it nigh impossible to speak.

Paganplace:

By the strict definition of the word "communication" someone must learn something thus machines with memories that listen and record actually communicate. Those who are incapable of learning are retarded of course.

I'll believe the church is serious about economic equality when the part of the world in which it's strongest, Latin America, stops having the world's most uneven wealth distribution.

Every Mexican who sneaks across our border is a testimony to the power of secular economics and the impotence of faith to provide for people.

Well, it does discourage conversation, Bgone, when your more carefully-thought-out posts get sent down a hole, ...therefore I'm sort of not feeling like communication is happening just lately. :)

Paganplace:

The censor is busy. Got you too?

Just checking.

Protecting human life in all its forms is a pillar of contemporary Catholicism. Today however the Crises in the Catholic Church overshadows this pillar.

The Crises:

1. The inappropriate conduct of many priests, the emotional stress on the victims and the resultant billion dollars in lawsuits,

2. The lack of talent in the priesthood.

3. The lack of Vatican response to the historic Jesus movement.

4. The Church's continuing cling to original sin and the resulting subsets of crazy ideas like limbo.

5. The denial of priesthood to women.

6. The restriction of priesthood to single men (unless you are former Episcopalian priests),

7. And the continued chain of Vatican "leadership" by old European white men.

Father Reese,

Thank you for an interesting and thoughtful piece. I will be looking to see what the Pope says as he visits the US and if I can I will try and look at a wider spectrum of reporting to get a better idea of his true thoughts on things. Perhaps he is more liberal then I thought and in my book that would be a very nice surprise indeed. It is a good thing to have a green Pope, one expects the Pope to be for Peace it is nice to know he is an environmentalist as well.

Ann Potter

With respect to Catholicism being the only true religion i.e God's people:

Professor Crossan's view from his book, Who is Jesus:

"When I look a Buddhist friend in the face, I cannot say with integrity, "Our story about Jesus' virginal birth is true and factual. Your story that when the Buddha came out of his
mother's womb, he was walking, talking, teaching and preaching (which I must admit is even better than our story)---that's a myth. We have
the truth; you have a lie."

I don't think that can be said any longer, for our insistence that our faith is a fact and that others' faith is a lie is, I think, a cancer that eats at the heart of Christianity".

Hey, can I get a complete sentence out? Yay. :)

Let's face it, the Church is just giving retroative lipservice toward taking *credit* for liberal changes they've opposed at every turn, mostly in the name of their sex issues.

What a refreshing, insightful take on the Holy Father's upcoming visit. I am so glad somebody is bringing up the other concerns of Pope Benedict besides the well-worn media drowned issues of abortion, stem cell research and homosexuality. World hunger, poverty, war, preservation of the environment to me are high priorities of this Pope's agenda. Too many people fail to realize that being pro-life means all life from womb to tomb. War, the death penalty, euthanasia, and poverty are all issues of post-birth abortion. Catholics and others who focus only on abortion and leave out the other issues concerning life are the true "cafeteria Catholics"

Church very regressive.

Beat many people

Only care sex

Support bad guys.

People heap big cheesed.

Church spin.

Can't speak.

In brief: They hurt queers.

Instead of helping Earth.

Long time.

Spin that.

Mr. Thomas J. Reese,

Thank you for your essay.

That was quite an impressive list of things said by Pope Benedict 16 on myriad social, economic, political and environmental issues. He does sound like a liberal Democrat (if he is to stand for US Presidential elections) on economics, the environment and foreign affairs, but a right wing Republican conservative on social issues. But Catholics can't vote for him directly, only the equivalent of church "superdelegates" that do so.

Reading quotes listed by you on the key points of what the Pope said (and perhaps out of context in my understanding as it was not the full texts themselves with possible "small prints" and caveats) one do tend to think it best for the Pope not to speak on some specific issues such as politics and economics as it would cause more misunderstandings that solutions for some on state-church seperation, or a leader of another faith group interfering in the religious affairs of another, or the head of a sovereign state doing likewise on another state.

The Pope's call for “prudent use of resources and an equitable distribution of wealth” for long-term social amity as well as environmental sustainability and resources responsibility is one none would dispute against. However, his contention that countries "must be guided by sound economic principles, avoiding forms of waste associated principally with the maintenance of expensive bureaucracies”, needs some reworking in light of the Church's hierachy and bureaucracy itself - entrenched and almost unchanged for centuries.

In this era of increasing decentralisation for better "deliveries" of services and resouces, many goverments are increasingly downsizing their bureaucracies to reduce cost, resorting to E-goverments, streamlining and such. And the Catholic Church remains the world's oldest continuously functioning hierachies and bureaucracy with carreerist clerics assigned all over the world like United Nations' bureaucrats or US State Department officials.

It may, perhaps, not be productive nor viable for a "centralised" in global authority church with a global head, a global headquarter, a global hierachy and bureaucracy representing some 1.2 billion people to be engaged in a global politicisation of one size fits all stance on issues in this century, even for its adherents. This is, after all, an era of increasing decentralisation of authority and segmentations of people by issues and interests that transcends borders race and religion.

Granted, it is easier to think and speak "globalese" - reducing everything to generalities of the lowest common denominator which may or may not have universal appeal. Many non-Catholics would have no difficulties with many of the ethical and moral stance stated by the Pope on war and peace, the enviroment, arms expenditure, refugees etc. One hopes these are the issues the Church would focus on in its inter-faith dialogues, including and especially with Muslims, for joint actions on the ground.

By the way, you and others in the west may state that Pope John Paul II may be "the conqueror of Communism". But in the Muslim world, it is regarded that it was the Afghan Mujahideens (with some help from US in funds for guns) who fought against and bled the big mother of western communist countries, the Soviet Union, and weakening it, making it easier for the Eastern bloc countries to rise up against and free themselves from the communist yoke. Words are not enough, action is, especially collaborative actions for common good.

Thank you and regards

"J"

(J)(O)(Z)(E)(V)(Z)

Proceed forward and attempt an airborne fornication at a rolling torus shaped pastry.

Te futue atque equem in quo huc vectus es.

Get thee to Gehenna.

Go away, back to prison.

Test.

Can I say:

Electioneering?

"We're sorry for the technical difficulties. We think a system glitch is inadvertently blocking some perfectly acceptable comments. We are looking into the problem. We think it may have something to do with whether the comment is posted multiple times"

Ah, glitch, I was wondering.... FYI, it got me on the first post, though.

I find it entertaining to read these right-leaning apologists and their ad hominem attacks on Fr Reese. Reese is not disingenuous, much less ill-informed, when he actually quotes from many published documents in outlining the pope's stance on these issues.

We're sorry for the technical difficulties. We think a system glitch is inadvertently blocking some perfectly acceptable comments. We are looking into the problem. We think it may have something to do with whether the comment is posted multiple times. Please be patient when you post a comment. Try to wait 5-10 minutes before posting again. Thank you.

Father Reese’s comments highlight a fundamental reality. The Catholic Church is neither politically conservative nor politically liberal, neither Republican nor Democrat. American political definitions do not bind the Church, nor should they.

In contrast to other journalists, who often ignore the Church’s seemingly liberal positions, Father Reese probably shortchanges the so-called “conservative ones.” For instance, he states that abortion is more than one issue among many, but event that is an understatement. The Pope’s position on the environment is offered as moral guidance but is not directly morally binding within the Church, whereas procuring or helping someone procure an abortion results in excommunication from the Church.

Still, given the one-sidedness of the rest of mainstream media, Reese can be forgiven if his concentration is on the Church’s “left leaning” stands. I do not often agree with Father Reese, but this is a welcome column.

Thanks for writing this piece. It's long overdue for the U.S. political parties to have a serious touchstone with which to judge their positions and, more importantly, their speeches. We are too often left to read messages that speak other than the words uttered, a situation that accompanies our present national disgrace.

ARL

If the American Conference of Catholic Bishops had followed the Catechism of the Catholic Church, then the United States would be a much different place. America, would have had a Democratic president for the last 8 years and the majority of the House and Senate would have been Democratic.
The Roman Catholics Catechism is very much a liberal document, one need only look in the section regarding human dignity. Those who say that the Catholic Church is a monolithic and one issue institution have much to learn. Yet, there continues to be an atmosphere of misunderstanding that permeates the laities understanding of what the Church stands for. When you have men and women like Bill O'Reilly, who for the record state that they are Catholic yet stand up and count themselves among those who are for the death penalty, that is among the most unlikely stands that exists. Because if one stands for a culture of life, then you cannot be against abortion and for the death penalty. It is "two-headed" thinking that causes this disconnect between the culture of life and those who are only a single issue, abortion, people. Yet to say that His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, is a solid and reasoned liberal is somewhat a misnomer. Benedict XVI, was and is among the most rabid of the conservatives of the College of Cardinals, he was the former prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Among the duties that he performed was the rooting out of the most liberal of the clergy and those whose stand on political and theological issues was contrary to that of the Vatican. He was the one who started the questioning and the prosecution of those clergy, whose writings and works stood out as clearly liberal and working for the poor and disenfranchised of the world. This work that he did, stood in contrast to that of the South American, Liberation Theology, which among other tenets had at its core, a premise that there should be married clergy, much like the Eastern Orthodox Church and political stands that stood squarely against the social elite of the countries of South America. Should one disagree with the current Holy Father, they run the risk of discipline and excommunication, for the simple fact the this Pope, is truly among those who would not hesitate to use the powers of his office in the most heavy-handed way.
This is not to say that if followed that the Roman Catholic Church, does not have at its heart the welfare and the well-being of the people. But, until you see a complete culture change and notice that there are married priests, freedom of the clergy to speak out against the current regimes of many of the countries that are now being oppressed, then and only then will we see a truly liberal and utterly sold-out to the gospel, follower of Christ as the successor of Peter.

It is ironic that Reese, whom Pope Benedict was instrumental in relieving from his editorial duties because his writings were at odds with Church teachings, would somehow pose as an expert on the Pope's views and criticize the media for distorting the views of the Church. Reese is disingenuous or ill-informed, in claiming that the Catholic faith is "to the left" of the Democratic party's policies. Social issues such as abortion, poverty, immigration, trade, stem cell research, marriage, etc. are all covered in depth in the Compendium on Social Doctrine of the Church, and has nothing to do with right or left.

Pope Benedict is also not the leftist Fr. Reese has in mind either. His preface to the second edition of his Introduction to Christianity is nearly all about the failures of Marxism and its theological mutant, liberation theology.

Unfortunately I share Reese's undeniably bleak view of media reporting when it comes to Christianity. Catholicism is an obvious example, but not the only one, for the media appears to believe that all Evangelical Christians are yahoo fundamentalists who disbelieve in evolution, are firmly wedded to the GOP right wing, and other such cliches.

But the media, presumably, know their audience, and no doubt, like many who give sermons, they preach what they think people want to hear.

On the other hand, I think the pope would do himself a favor if he faced more frankly and publicly than Rome seems willing to do the faults of the Catholic church (best that he leave the Evangelicals and Protestants in general alone on this score). Not just the sex scandal, important as that is, of course, with its enormous moral and financial costs; there are other issues as well. But the prospects for such an analysis seem also pretty bleak.

Amen.

Certainly the author understands that one should not confuse the media with scholarship.

I hope the Pope talks about Jesus the Christ, as this is, after all, the primary focus of the Christian Church and the message the person of Jesus has for you and me, and for everyone; and that he speaks a bit on a personal level, rather than focusing on broad, sweeping, political, perhaps historical themes. After all, isn't it from the personal that the broad sweeping themes evolve?

One can only hope that B16 will also address the flaws and errors in Catholicism and for that matter in all religions.