Wednesday, Sept. 8, 22nd Week in Ordinary Time
FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF THE VIRGIN MARY
Illustrations: From left, Icon (10th-cent.);Domenico Beccafumi, 1543; Master Bertram of Minden, c. 1500; Esteban Murillo, 1658.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/090810.shtml
The only story on the Pope in today's issue of the OR is the guest article by Cardinal Keith O'Brien of St Andrews and Edinburgh welcoming the Holy Father to the first stage of his four-day trip to the UK (translated two posts above). Also, the story on Mons. Gaenswein winning the Premio San Michele of Capri for his book documenting the first five years of the Pontificate in pictures, captions and brief texts of his impressions. Page 1 stories: An essay on the Nativity of Mary, continuing the OR's series of seeing lliturgical feasts through the Syro-Occidental tradition; a puff piece on Obama's latest campaign ploy to deal with unemployment; a new denunciation of the ongoing civilian deaths from the Somali civil war; and Europe's foreign ministers stalemated on financial and economic measures to get the European economy moving.
THE POPE'S DAY
General Audience today - The Holy Father flew to the Vatican from Castel Gandolfo for the GA
held in the Aula Paolo VI. He concluded his catechesis on Hildegarde von Bingen and read a message
to the people of the United Kingdom anticipating his coming visit.
After the GA, he met with
- Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Address in English.
- H.E. José Maria Pereira Neves, Prime Minister of Cape Verde, who earlier met with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
STATEMENT ON PROPOSED KORAN BURNING
BY A FRINGE U.S. RELIGIOUS GROUP
Sept. 8, 2010
The Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue received with great concern the news of the proposed "Koran Burning Day" on the occasion of the Anniversary of the September 11th tragic terrorist attacks in 2001 which resulted in the loss of many innocent lives and considerable material damage.
These deplorable acts of violence, in fact, cannot be counteracted by an outrageous and grave gesture against a book considered sacred by a religious community. Each religion, with its respective sacred books, places of worship and symbols, has the right to respect and protection.
We are speaking about the respect to be accorded the dignity of the person who is an adherent of that religion and his/her free choice in religious matters.
The reflection which necessarily should be fostered on the occasion of the remembrance of September 11th would be, first of all, to offer our deep sentiments of solidarity with those who were struck by these horrendous terrorist attacks. To this feeling of solidarity we join our prayers for them and their loved ones who lost their lives.
Each religious leader and believer is also called to renew the firm condemnation of all forms of violence, in particular those committed in the name of religion.
Pope John Paul II affirmed: "Recourse to violence in the name of religious belief is a perversion of the very teachings of the major religions" (Address to the new Ambassador of Pakistan, 16 December 1999).
His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, similarly expressed, "…violence as a response to offences can never be justified, for this type of response is incompatible with the sacred principles of religion..." (Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI, to the new Ambassador of Morocco, 6 February 2006).
Background:
Pastor Terry Jones of the evangelical Dove World Outreach Center in Florida
[said to have a membership of about 50 persons] has said he would go ahead with plans to burn copies of Islam's holy book this weekend despite opposition.
Demonstrations have already taken place in Afghanistan and Indonesia against the action, and the US commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan has warned this will unnecessarily bring more risks to US troops there.
One problem about the so-called 'evangelical' Christian sects is that anyone can call himself a pastor or minister, get together a handful or followers and proclaim themselves a 'church' (a sect, really). Which is the case with these bigoted pastor from Florida, who borrows a notion from radical Muslims to claim that burning Korans is his Christian duty!
His sanctimony is worse than that of the imam who insists that building a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero {others say part of Ground Zero iself, since debris from one of the kamikaze terror planes fell over the building) is a gesture of healing and reconciliation.
As though everyone were naive enough to believe that a mosque would not be the camel's nose in the tent of hate. What's to stop them from having radical imams preaching jihad in that mosque, or radical extremists holding seminars on hate and violence in its attached 'cultural center', as radical Muslims have been doing wherever they are able to do so? Unfortunately, in a democracy, they are free to do that. But all the 9/11 families and their sympathizers ask is that they find a location not in the immediate vicinity of Ground Zero. American society will simply have to be continually vigilant about opportunistic jihadists.
As for the bigoted pastor, apparently the ego trip of making worldwide headlines is far more important than considering the consequences of his bigotry - which includes putting the lives of American servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan more on the line than they already are.
May the Holy Spirit cast his light on those involved in these troubling issues!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/09/2010 19:28]