Meeting Catholic charity workers at the shrine, the Pope called for “defence of life” and “indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman” in response to what he described as the dangerous threats of gay marriage and abortion. He offered his thanks to those who helped people “wounded by the drama of abortion”.
His words will be studied in Britain where Catholics prepare for their own visit by the Pope in September. In the pre-election television debates, David Cameron said he disagreed with the Pope’s teaching on homosexuality. The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg indicated he agreed with Mr Cameron.
The Pope’s condemnation of gay marriage was itself condemned by secularists and gay rights campaigners. Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, accused Benedict of trying to interfere with the country’s democratic will. “If the President of Portugal approves the law on gay marriage ”“ and there is every indication that she will ”“ it will represent a slap in the face for the Pope’s authority.”
how unlike our own leadership to speak out with conviction and strength
Yes, RPP (#1),
And naturally, the Pope gets trashed by liberal spokesmen for such forthright statements, and their heated rhetoric gets trumpeted by liberal media outlets like the Times.
The Pope is absolutely right, of course, gay marriage and abortion are indeed [i]”among the most INSIDIOUS and dangerous challenges to society,”[/i] because they can easily seem minor in comparison to blatant evils like war, poverty, and racism, to cite the triad mentioned by Peter Tatchell of the gay advocacy group Outrage. However, the fact is that no one today defends war, poverty, or racism or argues that they are tolerable evils. But lots of people have fallen for the pernicious lie that abortion and gay marriage are a positive development to be celebrated as signs of overcoming deep-rooted social prejudice (against women and homosexuals). That’s precisely why abortion and gay marriage are such insidious, covert threats to the welfare of western societies.
I don’t know what to think of Marian apparitions (or supposed apparitions), whether at Fatima, Lourdes, Medjugore, Guadalupe, or Walsingham. But while JP II’s ardent devotion to Our Lady is well knwon, this pilgrimage to Fatima shows that even the scholarly Benedict shares that same devotion, in his own less flamboyant style.
I’m with you, RPP. I’ll probably never join the Ordinariat, but I agree that the pope is a much, much greater bishop and Christian leader than the feckless ABoC, ++RW, who may be a brilliant theologian (as is Ratzinger), but he’s absolutely hopeless and a miserable failure as nominal head of the AC.
David Handy+
Headline: Pope condemned by politicians, secularists, and gay rights campaigners!
Gosh, who could have seen that coming? Thank God we have such hard-hitting, investigative journalists on the job!
Must have been a REALLY slow news day..
Because the History of the West–especially Protestant areas–is quite anti-pope, the media is just using the pope as a means of attacking Biblical morality and the Christian moral Tradition–the real “culprits” in the papal defense of real marriage and the sanctity of human life.