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BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

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03/10/2009 14:42
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I did not realize how deep-seated anti-Catholicism continues to be among some Protestants. Su much for ecumenism....


Evangelical Protestants
oppose Pope's visit

by WILLIAM CRAWLEY

Friday, 2 October 2009



The Evangelical Protestant Society has issued the following statement, making clear their opposition to any visit to Northern Ireland (and presumably Great Britain as well) by Pope Benedict or his successors:


We fully support the statement issued by DUP MLA Ian McCrea in opposition to any visit by the Pope to Northern Ireland. We commend Mr McCrea for his courageous and principled stand and urge all Protestant politicians to follow his lead.

Whether the Pope comes to Ulster next year, or the visit is deferred to 2012, now is the time to galvanise opposition to any such visit, and it is incumbent upon all Protestant leaders, in church and state, to nail their colours to the mast.

As evangelical Protestants, we believe in civil and religious liberty for all, and we accept that a religious leader has the right to pay a pastoral visit to his flock. But the Pope is no ordinary religious leader, and his visit cannot be merely pastoral.

Indeed, the planned visit to Great Britain will be the first state visit by a pope since the Reformation.

The Pope makes very significant spiritual and temporal claims about himself and his Church. The Pope of Rome arrogates to himself power over princes and kings and claims to be Vicar (or substitute) of the Lord Jesus Christ.


[I cannot imagine a more bigoted statement from any Protestant group in recent times - it harks back to the vicious anti-Papist days that followed Henry VIII's departure from the Church after the Pope rejected his divorce and remarriage. But it gets worse...]

[IMG]This statement was issued by Wallace Thomson, EPS's secretary, who is also a former DUP special advisor. Wallace Thompson will join me live on Sunday morning to talk about the concerns he has raised.


Protestants from the days of the Reformation onwards have identified the Pope as the Antichrist, and this doctrinal position is enshrined in, for example, the Westminster Confession of Faith.

This is the position held by Ian McCrea, and it is the position held by the Evangelical Protestant Society as an inter-denominational organisation.

We therefore utterly reject the accusation by SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone that Ian McCrea's comments were sectarian. Of course the Church of Rome regards any opposition to her teachings or her claims as "sectarian", so we should not be surprised by Mr McGlone's remarks.

Meanwhile, we in EPS will be doing all we can to co-ordinate united Protestant opposition to any papal visit, and we will work closely with Protestants not only in Northern Ireland but across the United Kingdom.



In a homily last Sunday, marking the anniversary of Pope John Paul II's visit in 1979, Cardinal Sean Brady said:

"My message is one of peace and love. May no Irish Protestant think that the Pope is an enemy, a danger or threat. My desire is that instead Protestants would see in me a friend and a brother in Christ".

Again it is timely to recall those words in a week when some here have tried to drum up opposition to a possible Papal visit.

"Let history record," Cardinal Brady concluded: "That at a difficult moment in the experience of the people of Ireland, the Bishop of Rome set foot in your land, that he was with you and prayed with you for peace and reconciliation for the victory of justice and love over hatred and violence".




Benedict’s trip to Britain:
New details emerge

By Ed West

2 October 2009


Pope Benedict XVI will visit Britain next September in the first-ever papal state visit to the country.

It will be the first papal visit to Britain since 1982 when Pope John Paul II's pastoral six-day tour drew huge crowds, and the first state visit of a pontiff by government invitation. [I wonder why John Paul II's visit was not a state visit as well!]

Prime Minister Gordon Brown re-issued a formal invitation during a private audience in February.

A spokesman for Mr Brown said he was "delighted" and that "it would be a moving and momentous occasion for the whole country".

It has been suggested that the Pope will be present at the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman. Church sources say London, Birmingham and Edinburgh would be likely destinations, as well as Oxford.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, said the "prospect of a visit by Pope Benedict fills us with joy".

"We are glad the Holy Father is giving such consideration to the invitations he has received from Her Majesty's Government, which accord closely to the wishes and requests also expressed by the Bishops of England and Wales," he said.

A spokesman for Mr Brown said: "The PM is obviously delighted at the prospect of a visit from Pope Benedict XVI to Britain. It would be a moving and momentous occasion for the whole country and he would undoubtedly receive the warmest of welcomes."

Conservative leader David Cameron, tipped to be Prime Minister when the papal visit comes around, said he was also "delighted" to hear of the visit.

He said: "Such a visit - the first in over a quarter of a century - would be greatly welcomed not only by Roman Catholics but by the country as a whole."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, added that he had long hoped for such a visit.

"I'm sure I speak on behalf of Anglicans throughout Britain, in assuring him that he would be received with great warmth and joy," he said.

Tony Blair invited Pope Benedict to Britain when he visited the Vatican in June 2006, and repeated the invitation a year later. The English bishops also sent the Holy Father a formal invitation that year. Earlier this year Mr Brown renewed the invitation, which was "warmly received", according to the BBC.

An official announcement about the date will be made at the end of the year but it is expected that the visit will be in September, which by convention is the time of year Pope Benedict makes a visit to a European country.

In previous Septembers he has visited Germany, Austria and France, and he has just completed a visit to the Czech Republic. The trip is expected to last three days, although it could be as long as five. The Vatican may not formally announce the trip until December.

The Pontiff will confine his trip to Great Britain and will not visit Northern Ireland until 2012, despite some media speculation, when he visits the Irish Republic for the International Eucharistic Congress.

Some Catholics are hoping the Pope will break with convention and beatify Cardinal Newman himself.

Fr Federico Lombardi, the Pope's spokesman, said such a trip would be an "obvious occasion" to beatify Cardinal Newman. A journalist in the Czech Republic noted that Benedict XVI had previously expressed a preference to allow beatifications to be carried out by the local Church rather than by the Pope. In response, Fr Lombardi said: "We have a year to figure that out."

A Church insider said: "Cardinal Newman is the major event. It wouldn't be ridiculous to suggest that it's a possibility. The Pope has said it's his rule not to preside at beatifications but it's his rule to break.

"Pope Benedict is a great admirer of Newman and this visit is about Newman, and about what it says about the Church. It's not as simple as him turning up to bash politicians on the head. He always comes to boost those countries he visits, and England and Wales will benefit."

Catholic journalist Peter Jennings said he believed that the Pope would beatify Newman at an open-air Mass during a state visit in September.

Speaking from Rome after meeting senior Vatican officials, he said: "Wouldn't it be fantastic if the Pope also declared Newman a Doctor of the Church during the same ceremony?"

Earlier this year the Pope approved as a miracle the cure of a Massachusetts deacon from a crippling spinal condition, bringing Cardinal Newman, who died in 1890, one step closer to canonisation. Jack Sullivan, who will visit Britain next month, said he was healed after praying to Cardinal Newman in 2001, after watching a documentary on EWTN.

The Pope's visit was not universally welcomed, however.

Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society, said: "This is dismal news indeed. Why Britain should seek to laud such a nasty extremist is beyond me."




[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 03/10/2009 16:34]
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