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POPE BENEDICT XVI today promised top Vatican officials he would remain in “spiritual proximity” with them even after he resigns next week, at the end of a week-long spiritual retreat in the Vatican.
The pope also told members of the Roman Curia – the government of the Church – that the beauty of God’s creation “is constantly contradicted by the evil of this world, by suffering and by corruption.”
“It is as if evil constantly wants to sully creation to contradict God and render his truth and his beauty unrecognisable,” the pope said.
He also thanked his aides for their assistance.
I would like to thank all of you and not only for this week but for the past eight years in which you have shared the burden of the Petrine ministry with great competence, affection, love and faith.
“This gratitude will stay with me and even though our external visible communion is coming to an end, there remains a spiritual proximity, there remains a profound communion in prayer,” he said.
The pontiff’s spiritual retreat – a period of prayer in his Apostolic Palace in the Vatican – began on Sunday during a period of penitence in the Christian calendar ahead of Easter celebrations.
Tens of thousands of faithful are expected in St Peter’s Square tomorrow when Benedict will recite his last weekly prayers and again on Wednesday when he will hold his final general audience.
The pope has said he will resign on Thursday – the first pope to do so since the Middle Ages – because he no longer has the strength of body and mind to carry out his duties in the modern world.
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In other words – he won’t stray from Vatican land for fear of arrest!
Nice PR spin by them.
So he’ll be a spiritual stalker.
If he was worried about arrest, and there is no evidence to suggest this was ever likely, he would’ve remained Pope with the immunity being head of state brings rather than resign and have immunity only in the Vatican and Italy that comes from the Lateran Pact.
Not really Richard. Remember the church puts the church before everything and everyone else.
Any allegations or talk of arrest of an ex pope would be disastrous, but allegations or arrest warrants against a sitting pope would be the end.
I’m in financial proximity to my bank and I still hate the bank.
@ Richard Keogh
How little you know – its well documented: http://alturl.com/2s8ap
The financial reasons behind his going is also explained.
Richard he’s not worried because he knows he’s untouchable even as a former pope . It’s sad to say but there’s no government out there that really has the balls to take on the Vatican in any meaningful way. Why? Because of fear of the reaction from an estimated billion believers ! The Americans certainly won’t do anything as the catholic vote is too important there , although they and the Allies had plenty of evidence to crucify the Vatican for its collusion with the fascists during WWII , the only thing that saved them is that they had a common foe with the Allies and that was the threat from communism ! World leaders still cavort with the Vatican today because its very powerful and their shit scared they’ll piss off the catholic populace in their own , neighbouring and other international countries.
Imagine if we lived in the Middle East, the majority of commenters here would be publicly hanged for our comments on religion. We are lucky to be civilised and have freedom of speech!
They’d have you caught fairly sharpish Chris, not many elves in the Middle-East
I agree with you 100% Chris, the western world has progressed ALOT in the last few hundred years.
Wasn’t very long ago that even the pope’s didn’t agree with what your saying though:
“Liberty is madness, and any work advocating freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly or freedom of eduction is “a filthy sewer full of heretical vomit” – Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari vos, 1832
I’m not really an elf Gaius, I was raised by elves!
“…will remain in spirtual proximity…”.
Kind of like a fart in a blanket.
If there is such thing as god and the bible and all the rest the church has destroyed it and ruined its reputation.
But I will agree with the pope, evil is taking over, when you look past the daily shite thrown at each country by government and look at the world as a whole and America , England and Germany at the forefront steering. Owned by banks who own corporations who own politicians that is where the evil began!
PROFIT ! PROFIT! PROFIT.
Africa- rich in natural resources to sustain itself, look at how then people suffer, greedy gov, listening to bankers for the benefit of corporations.
Ireland fish, oil etc indebted to EU for the foreseeable future oh and don’t forget or government made us bail out the banks! Join the dots !
Julie,
Nothings changed though, its always been about money and power even for the Vatican.
Go back to the start of the christian faith and priests did marry back then it was very common infact. The problem was when they died their belongings whatever they had went to their familys/wife. The Vatican didn’t like this so they changed the rules and made it so priests could marry no longer.
Then look at the centurys of the inquisition that the catholic church carried out. They didn’t just label people as heretics for the laugh and then kill them. They killed them and then got to keep their belongings, money and wealth….so it was win win for the church.
Even when people would be accused of being as heretic and decided to kill themselves in order to avoid the torture the church made suicude a sin, but that didn’t stop people killing themselves.
So the church changed the rules again and made it so they could still trial somebody for being a heretic even after they killed themslves…..the plus side is they still got to keep the persons’ wealth/belongings!
Its always been about money and power, the only difference is these days its no other the catholic faith thats the richest. The power and money has shifted.
Thanks didn’t know some of that stuff don’t know much about the Vatican. I know the Vatican bank is now privately owned. A lot of the stuff you mentioned were for the benefit of the banks just like today it for the benefit of the banks.
But what has made the shift of power worse today then years ago is the advance in technology along with the shift in power.
Yes technology is good because we can talk to each other, but there are also negatives like drones, digital money etc .
Also what i think is worse is that nowadays we are centralising everything. With power = greed and corruption. We need to stop giving more power. DECENTRALISE
@ Julie
It has been the same since Socrates and before & to those who say how much freedom we have and how lucky we are, in fact slaves in ancient Rome had more rights than we do.
Order is an illusion.
Chaos reigns.
Jesus wasn’t Catholic. This church doesn’t preach all of Jesus teachings.
Spiritual proximity? What a joke.
How is it a joke? They have a special dongle for it.
Anti Catholics are the real Flat Earthrs repeating the same old stuff over and over again while the Catholic Church reinvents itself continuously
Hiding place for child abusers and you who still contribute in any form to the catholic church are complicit in its cover up and it’s shielding and hiding of sick , disturbed men and women who used the church as cover while they raped, buggered, tortured pre and post pubescent children…. Now go and strike your breast whilst father A.N. Other enjoys freedom after ruining some child/ children’s life/lives… You all make me vomit.
Tom, good one,
How exactly does it reinvent itself?
- Is it the way it treats women as equals? – nope clearly not
Perhaps its the way they’ve flp flopped on topics over the century’s?
- Witches exist and are evil, burn them, burn them, burn them….actually no they don’t exist…relax.
- Its an abomination for women to wear pants…..actually no its fine!
- Its ok to own slaves…..actually no its evil
- Marriage is evil and heresy….actually no, marriage is part of the faith!
- You can kill your wife if she lied about being a virgin when you got married…..did we say that? Of course you can’t!
- You can kill somebody for working on a Sunday……we didn’t say such nonsense, ignore what it actually says in the bible
- The sun travels around the earth and don’t you dare say otherwise or we’ll jail you!……….oh, shit, we were seriously wrong on that way…sorry
Yep, they’ve reinvented themselves……moving with the times
Tom, read the history of the catholic church and look at its flip flopping on so many issues before you comment and make yourself look like a fool again
I feel exactly as you do about the 2% in the Catholic Church and those in family homes, TV stations, sports and youth clubs who abuse children and the bail system that after minimal prison or counselling lets predators loose on society again.
2% that have been revealed Tom, did you know there is a whole archive in the Vatican full of reports on child sex abuse worldwide, we will be hearing of abuse in developing countries such as the Philippines over the coming years too, they are where Ireland was at in the 40′s and 50′s. Young children don’t stay in orphanages run by police officers, doctors and sports coaches, so stop using that catholic excuse, ‘they’re doing it too’, the church was in a position of care looking after children in homes, so come off it.
Tom how come you can’t actually respond directly to the statements Barry just made. He had just shown your previous statement to be utter nonsense and your response is to wander off on some obscure tangent because you know he is perfectly right, why persist with mumbo jumbo nonsense, how can you look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself you are right to put this bizarre excuse for a good man on a pedestal.
You see all non believers have to do is stand back and watch, as the church pulls itself apart and is seen for what it is.
And maybe Christians of all shape and sizes and gender and sexual preference can practice what suits them without the heavy hand of dogma and hypocrisy leering over their lives.
Where do you get your information from? The numbers raped or buggered as you say were thankfully very
Low . Most were inappropriately touched . Horrible but not raping or buggering !
Is there anything you wouldn’t excuse Anthony? Just wondering
Anthony most recent known estimates in the US were around 30,000. Most of those would’ve involved forced oral sex, many would’ve involved anal rape, and sometimes the anal rape may have involved more than one rapist at a time, working as a team, if you will, like Michael O’Brien remember him on RTE a couple of years ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoARiGumm4E if you have no time watch from 3.30mins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i44dv1KMPsM
There are hundreds just like him in Ireland and many thousands worldwide and the previous two popes are all about protecting the abusers.
I hope you sir have a good day.
@ Anthony – I am Catholic and will debate with anyone but you’re comment is just out of order – it is offensive and insulting to those who’ve been through the trauma of any form of sexual abuse and from some one who defends the Church like you do (and I do) it is a ridiculous thing to say.
My response was to Dave. Other posts just confirm my first post is correct. Observing the typical worst behaviour of the human race and blaming the prevailing religion for it makes as much sense as blaming “whites” for all wrongs.
Tom this abuse WAS perpetrated BY the prevailing religion, and hidden and denied by the prevailing religion. Why are you refusing to admit that much. Please admit that much. And yes the obscenely worst excesses of the human race. Capable of being committed by anyone yes, in these instances and thousands like them.
In this respect have an above average instance of abuse, way above societal norms, this has been shown to be the case, time and again.
Now what tangent will it be this time…Tom
Tom Newnewman, the abuse I’ve listed and wrongs were done by and in the name of the religion and were approved by the leader of the faith.
To suggest it was just human’s being wrong suggests that the Vatican and pope is wrong as these actions….including the witch burning (35 thousand in the uk alone killed) were approved by the Vatican.
For feck sake the organization that carried out the witch burnings known as the Inquisition is the same organization that the current pope who is stepping down used to work for, you know the organization well it is called the “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith”.
You know why we’ve all heard about it? Because the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also knew about child abuse and their solution was to move priests around to cover it up. Did it work, No of course not. But it was still approved by the vatican.
The Inquisition wasn’t just a fly-by-night operation, it ran for century’s starting from the 12th and it even tried Galileo in the 19th and was fully approved by the Vatican.
You may choose to ignore the crimes your church has carried out throughout history but that doesn’t mean everyone else will.
Anthony you are one truly sick puppy !
Good one Will we should call him Tangent Tom from now on ! LOL
Hi Will I’ve seen and heard Michaels testimonies before . To say It’s very powerful and emotional to listen to is an understatement . If would also be very powerful if someone could gather testimonies from all victims/survivors . Unfortunately for many , their stories will never be told and their tormentors will escape justice and will always remain anonymous . It sickens me to think those evil bastards will keep their “good” reputation even in death.
I think he does have a point. As strange as it might sound and not to defend the acts which were committed, but many were made up by people looking for a pay day. Several claims in the US were disproved as false accusations. Furthermore, these heinous acts were done by men in power and had, in my opinion nothing to do with the church as a whole. Same as with abuse at the hands of Boy Scout leaders or other religious organizations. The church was definitely wrong to protect anyone and should have thrown them to the dogs. The fraternalness of the local organization and its members escalated upwards and it spun out of control. I’m totally for prosecuting those men who abused their power and molested anyone, male or female. John Paul II was wrong to allow any protection but I think he was manipulated by the spin doctors around him and Ratzinger/Benedict was chief among them.
The Catholic Church as a whole, however, does good works around the world and there are many thousand devoted men and women – religious and lay people – helping the poor, the sick and the marginalized. I’ve decided that my Sunday gift won’t go to the first collection anymore – to the local church. The second collection is usually for missions etc and that’s where I prefer my gift going.
@ John Breaux ” many we’re looking for a pay day” . Many , many thousands more were looking for justice . Your emphasis appears to be on a very , very small minority of opportunists which only serves to distract from the very very large number if victims/survivors. Wishful thinking on your part that the Popes were coerced into cover up. You continue to support the hierarchy and your church and I’ll support its victims. Clearly your just interested in protecting its reputation too and in my opinion no better than the individuals who abused those kids. As of for all the good Catholics , if you know the crimes were committed and you know the hierarchy covered it up and you still support them then you are also complicit in my book !
John there were lots of good god fearing roman catholic members of the nazi party too you know . If you wear the uniform you support the party .
Saw the new documentary film ‘Mea Maxima Culpa’ last night and would encourage others to watch it if they can, it focuses on a priest called Fr. Lawrence Murphy who ran a boarding school for deaf children in Wisconsin, where he groomed the most vulnerable of children, who he then sexually abused & raped for years, it also looks at the situation in Ireland and includes the Murphy & Cloyne reports. Then it takes a closer look at the Vatican, revealing how these cases and thousands of others (approx. 2000) where handled directly by Ratzinger and looks at how he and other high ranking vatican personnel systematically worked to cover up these horrendous crimes. Although I was already aware of the goings on at the Vatican, I still found this film to be a real eye opener and after watching it you have to ask if the pope’s resignation was in some way related to this, or other things to come.
If anyone’s interested in seeing it, it’s showing in the IFI, Lighthouse and at Movies @ Dundrum & Swords
To Chris and Rory,what would Jesus think of the Roman Catholic Church,would he be proud?
I’d say Jesus would be gobsmacked to see what Paul of Tarsus and Peter and the popes of Rome had made of his message of the kingdom of god being within each of us and loving one’s neighbour as oneself.
Did he step down because of alot of gay encounters and stealing going on in the vatican.
Catholic means universal, roman catholic means you have a lot of reading to do.
Important stuff!in the whole universe like,ha
Actually, catholic with a small C means universal. Roman Catholic is the Holy Roman Church.
There is no god. We are just another species of animal. Get over it.
Listened to Sinead O’connor interview on bbc6 live today, took me to YouTube and trip down memory lane. Came across an interview with Sinead talking about SNL performance where she tore up pic of pope at time and then onto Madison garden where she was boo’d. Very brave lady who still made her voice heard over the haters booing her speaking the truth about their church.
Why do the people who are members of the Catholic Church attack those who point out its mistakes and abuse of power instead of thanking and supporting them rid their church of the liars who covered up the abuses? At least then they may have church not based on hypocrisy and lies and be part of something they can be proud of.
“It is as if evil constantly wants to sully creation to contradict God and render his truth and his beauty unrecognisable,” the pope said.
Which in other words means “Plenty will be said about me after I’m gone but it’s just the evil talking”
Julie ,that was a good rant !! I don’t know hot all that rubbish you wrote is relevant to a comment that people can ant and the Pope can have his rant. Anyway , if it turns you on keep going ,I’m sure you have a lot more in you.
How would typing on my phone and giving my opinion turn me on, when was the last time you satisfied a women. Sorry that was mean. Small egos make for men like Enda. What about what I said did you not like? I can back up everything I said from credible news reports and articles and people who’s credibility I have checked out.
He helped pedophiles and covered up their crimes..o maybe thats just the evil talking!!!
‘Spiritual Proximity’ just like the tooth fairy!
So Gods work is being undermined by evil and corruption, he says. Well, he should know: the Vatican bank is indeed corrupt, for example, and as for evil, surely the way Ratzinger himself and his immediate predecessor, the so called saintly John Paul 2, protected child abusing priests, is in itself a manifestation of evil. He and his ilk have also corrupted the message of the man they purport to follow. I can’t image the Jesus of legend being so lacking in compassion as to forbid the use of condoms as a means of helping to prevent the spread of aids. I can’t imagine Jesus wearing Gucci slippers, flying about in a helicopter or sitting on a golden throne. I can’t imagine Jesus joining hitler youth. I can’t imagine him standing by while the Jews, Jesus’ own people, were deported to concentration camps and gas chambers, like the Pope and many in the church did at the time. The Jesus of the bible was anti establishment and if he existed at all in the modern world he would be the first to condemn these wizen faced little men and their evil cult have hijacked his words for their own ends.
#who have
The root of evil is religion brainwashing people to believe complete nonsense. For example 600years after Jesus death someone came up with the story of the “Virgin”(cough cough) Mary ascending to heaven directly with angels without actually dying. In the 1950s the Pope decided that this story had to be true and believed in if you were Catholic and decreed it the assumption of Mary.
Superstitious nonsensical malarkey! The Pope wonders about Evil? Well when you look the other way when innocent children are being abused sexually, physically, Mentally, on a worldwide systematic level over decades all for the sake of keeping the so called reputation of the Church shiny and holy that truly is the definition of pure evil. (It’s not some magical force from a devil it is completely man made)
The Vatican has to answer for it’s crimes against humanity and there is no excuse the deluded followers who are brainwashed form trans-generational beliefs and have this warped religion enforced through the repetitive cycle of mass, can offer.
The Vatican is the most corrupt enitiy in the history of humanity. Support them and you endorse the horrendous and vile track record that they have.Now that indeed would be sinful!
What I want to know is: Who created the evil?
God did based on christian belief.
God is all powerful and created the universe, angels and everything in it.
the devil is a fallen angel, as such god created the devil.
Of course even if you don’t believe in the devil, evil was still created by god because he created everything and is all powerful.
Of course if you claim god didn’t create evil then god is not all powerful anymore and clearly didn’t create everything ;)
So in short, god did if you believe in such things…otherwise he didn’t if you don’t believe in a god.
In reality of course we know that human’s are well capable of good and bad things and evil is just a word created by us to label stuff. Simples.
Somebody photoshopped out the lighting bolts coming from his fingers. Not cricket!
With the exception of Chris, there are a right bunch of ranters out this morning. You are lucky , as Chris points out to be in a Democracy where you can freely articulate your views , just like Benedict can voice his.
If it were up to me you’d all be locked up and I’d win comment of the week EVERY week, one can but dream
We are not ranters as you called us we just merely seem to observe better or maybe question things better and therefore we have a stronger(not saying better) opinion on things. You do not observe as much therefore lucky you are less pissed off then the rest of us. Freedom of speech is thanks to journal twitter and all we keep hearing is negative about these things government don’t like them. America cispa I would advise you to look it up, soon the only free or private speech we have will be by mail. It a war on terror. But why ? America is claiming everyone has nuclear weapons yes because the biggest superpower that keeps starting wars in the Middle East has the biggest army in the world. America Iran the lot of ye all get rid of any weapons. Then if their are no nuclear weapons there is no war. Just another fact America has but a ban on pharmaceutical companies selling medicine to Iran, because they won’t give up nucs, Iran has said look come inspect them when ever ye want regulate them, no not good enough. Kill them, people are dying in hospitals. Yes this has nothing to do with pope but a lot to do with the evil he was talking about.
Who do you think gave us these freedom’s to criticize the church for its wrongdoing’s Rory?
It sure as hell wasn’t the Vatican, remember that this organization used to burn people as well as torture and kill people if they disagreed with them.
Remember that a previous pope said the following,
“Liberty is madness, and any work advocating freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly or freedom of eduction is “a filthy sewer full of heretical vomit” – Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari vos, 1832
Yes, we have freedom, but it sure as hell isn’t anything to do with the church allowing it.,
Spiritual proximity = A drinking buddy
He’d know all about suffering and corruption!
Whats that saying “the biggest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince people he didn’t exist” well i think the biggest trick the the catholic church ever pulled was to convince people Jesus did Religion is the biggest hindrance to the human race….
Ohhhh there is that word again “Sully”…
You can watch t film ‘mean cupla’ on upc’s on demand now
The resignation of Pope Benedict as foretold by the visionary Maria Divine Mercy in her website http://www.thewarningsecondcoming.com (which can be googled) is among the notable short term prophecies such as of Arab Spring/conflict, earthquake in Spain, death of Gaddaffi etc which have unfolded in time and space as personally monitored by me (since I’m from Geo-Sc background). The next prophecy is about the false prophet taking over control of the seat who will do away with the sacraments? and if that really be true then those Litany and Crusade prayers (over 100 Nos till date) should not be taken lightly by the clergy especially
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