tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-991024973331268414.post6085465772135898724..comments2008-05-23T09:27:51.204-07:00Comments on Pendleton Flannels and Steam Ales: The PopeZachary J. Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15301132875492261087noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-991024973331268414.post-21566356125462676062008-04-23T06:15:00.000-07:002008-04-23T06:15:00.000-07:00How nice to read a thoughtful and intellectual ret...How nice to read a thoughtful and intellectual retort to the common, cynical, All American response to the Pope and what he has to say. All too often Catholics must revisit the prejudice that has shadowed them in America since the colonial days. In the early to mid 18th century, all the colonies had laws in place that forbade Catholics from holding public office, some even forbade Catholics to vote. It wasn't until the Bill Of Rights that all religions were endorsed with the freedom of worship. This was done not because it was the right thing to do, mind you. It was done because the founding fathers could not agree on a national religion! Had they all agreed that America was a bastion of Lutheranism, the Bill Of Rights would have been the Bill Of Rights And Restrictions.<BR/><BR/>The Pope remains the personification of the conscience of man. That is what his burden is. Throughout history there have been 266 Popes over the span of almost 2,000 years, from Peter to Benedict XVI. Some of these men have been great, most of them have been good-hearted and a few of them have been scoundrels. Probably about the same ratio as the human population at large. Regardless of their personal failures, all of them ascend to the papacy alone and, like Atlas, must take on the weight of the world's woes. Unlike leaders of powerful nations, he cannot wage war in the military sense to conquer an apathetic, agnostic/athiestic, materially oriented world of wayward souls. The Pope represents hope. And hope is the reward of faith. He himself is not infallible for he is human. But the Pope does represent in no uncertain terms that we can be made worthy of God's love by receiving and sharing that love unconditionally and without prejudice or judgement. Every Pope in my lifetime has publicly pronounced the same desire for all men: freedom and emancipation from poverty, starvation, ignorance and illiteracy. I fail to see how anyone can, in good conscience, oppose those ideals. <BR/><BR/>Personally, I am delighted that Benedict XVI is the current Pope. I know of none others preceding him who have possessed the encyclopedic intellect of man's eternal struggle with who he is, where he came from and why. Benedict fully understands the contemporary crisis of man as well: the struggle to accept responsibility for his shameless exploitation of earth's resources and the subsequent contamination of what began as Paradise. Again, the Pope is, and must be, the conscience of the world.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10940618019249423346noreply@blogger.com