He leads a large community of faith, but what he, and you are failing to realize is that saying "my faith is better than your faith, and if you don't convert to Catholicism you're going to burn" is divisive, it only serves to alienate and burn bridges. He's not gaining anything by saying it publicly.
You'd be screaming at the top of your lungs if the head of the Southern Baptist Church in America, or the head of the Methodist Church, or if the Dalai Lama said it. Why is it OK, for the Pope to say it? I'd love to see a time where Jews, Christians, Muslims and Catholics suddenly realized "Hey we all worship the same god.... what in the heck are we fighting about" that won't happen as long as statements like Benedict's are made publicly, regardless of it being some archaic "official" doctrine. John Paul II was a political force within the labor unions of Poland long before he was pope, he's credited for helping crush communism in Poland because of that, not singularly because he was pope. Lech Walesa's (sp?) role was just as large. I do find it interesting that Benedict's statement came a couple weeks before the announcement of the largest settlement of priestial (sp?) sexual abuse in history. Could he be trying to stem a tide of people leaving the Catholic Church ? I'm not Catholic, I was raised in a liberal Protestant (Calvinist?) church, (Christian Church, Disciples of Christ), so the pope holds no power over me, in my heart he doesn't speak for God, only God can do that. But the pope is a very public figure, with millions who take his words as absolute, empirical truth, with that amount of power he can create or burn bridges to other faiths and creeds, he's chosen to burn them. -- Scott Stewart ColdFusion Developer SSTWebworks 7241 Jillspring Ct. Springfield, Va. 22152 (703) 220-2835 http://www.sstwebworks.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/sstwebworks -----Original Message----- From: Russel Madere [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 11:32 AM To: CF-Community Subject: Re: Is Pope Benedict really this arrogant? But how does that negate the fact he is the leader of a city state? Why do other "world leaders" continue to meet with the Pope? If his opinions only effect the few you suggest, why do you care? Obviously his opinion on this was important enough to you for you to comment. >He's not a world leader despite Vatican City's supposed independence. He >doesn't command an army, he has no economic pull, he cannot effect large >scale government policies. His opinion on world events is only of importance >to catholics and some conservative Christians. > In his later years, but he was just as confrontational with those same groups early on. If he is so marginal in world events, why is he credited with the fall of communism in Poland? >JPII did much to reach out to other denominations and faiths, and cement >together people of faith regardless of the religion. Benedict is undoing all >of JPII's work. > Yeah right. You seem to be doing the same then or you wouldn't be flapping your lips about it so much. >I think you heavily over estimate the power that the catholic church really >has. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Upgrade to Adobe ColdFusion MX7 The most significant release in over 10 years. Upgrade & see new features. http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion?sdid=RVJR Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:238497 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
