So priests in southern Italy should refuse them Communion, or a Catholic burial should they die without reconciliation.
It's a significant move, and I wonder why it has never been done before.
But this is the same Pope who insisted on ditching the bulletproof glass.
"It's true that anything could happen, but let's face it, at my age I don't have much to lose," he told Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia in an interview published Friday and reported on in English by Vatican Radio. "I know that something could happen to me, but it's in the hands of God."So maybe the answer's as simple as that. He is not afraid.
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This is part of what troubles me about this Pope- he may indeed be not afraid, and good for him on that- BUT- he is not only himself, he is also now the leader of the Catholic Church- an office, a symbol and more, wrapped up into a one man package. If he gets assassinated by Islamic radicals- is the potential for ensuing retributive violence worth the satisfying of his fearlessness? If such a thing were to blow up int oa large war, wouldn't it have seemed the much wiser course to put aside his desires and do waht is right, burdensome it may be? That it doesn't bother him and that he chooses to explain it thusly concern me greatly.
Oddly I doubt Islamic crazies have the Pope on their radar. Also it is an odd way to put it, that it would be his fault if they killed *him*.
My sense is that "doing what is right" for a Pope is probably close to what he is doing than what other Popes have done. I don't think any power is going to go to war to avenge the Pope, but I also think that you can only achieve an effect by getting out there and being with the people. Just like in Iraq, before the Surge, we didn't have as big an effect because we were focused on self-protection. But once we got out and were daring the dangers, attack rates went down, not up.
The influence of the Church is made this way too. If he is killed -- perhaps by a mafiosi rather than a Muslim! -- the Church will have lost a leader of worth. It will have gained a martyr, whose influence in the spiritual realm may be greater than he was on earth.
When people see that a man like this is willing to dare death for his faith, they know he takes seriously the promises of God. His example moves hearts.
Was John Paul II not in touch with the people? He seemed to have a great connection to the ordinary man- without the 'stunts' (for lack of a better term). I would never have assumed that Benedict or JPII would not have been willing to sacrifice their lives for their faith, and it was plenty evident to me they took seriously the promises of God. That the people might connect in a more 'cult of personality' way with him only makes the potential for anything bad to happen to him more pregnant with ill winds for the ship of civilization.
Man, it ends up sounding like I don't like the man, and really, I'm just uncomfortable with his positions and actions. I don't know- he just has my antennae up, but I don't really know why.
Perhaps it is because he spent his life before this in Peronist Argentina, and it colors his understanding of the world in ways that are not useful.
His grasp of economics, for example, is virtually non-existant, from what I can tell. His pronouncements on 'Capitalism' sound like they were something written in Pravda, circa 1955.
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