"Ideology of Evil"

Clack-Clack

Pope Calls Gay Marriage Part of 'Ideology of Evil'

Tuesday, February 22, 2005 3:12 p.m. ET

By Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) - Homosexual marriages are part of "a new ideology of evil" that is insidiously threatening society, Pope John Paul says in a new book published Tuesday.

In "Memory and Identity," the Pope also calls abortion a "legal extermination" comparable to attempts to wipe out Jews and other groups in the 20th century.

He also reveals that he is convinced the Turkish gunman who shot him in 1981 did not act alone and suggests that the former Communist Bloc may have been behind the plot to kill him.

The 84-year-old Pontiff's book, a highly philosophical and intricate work on the nature of good and evil, is based on conversations with philosopher friends in 1993 and later with some of his aides.

In one section about the role of lawmakers, the Pope takes another swipe at gay marriages when he refers to "pressures" on the European Parliament to allow them.

"It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man," he writes.

The Pope's fifth book for mass circulation, issued by Italian publisher Rizzoli, sparked controversy in Germany and elsewhere after Jewish groups protested against leaked excerpts comparing the Holocaust to abortion.

In at least two sections of the book, the Pope talks about the Nazi attempt to exterminate Jews and the wholesale slaughter of political opponents by Communist regimes after World War II.

"LEGAL EXTERMINATION"

In following paragraphs he says that legally elected parliaments in formerly totalitarian countries were today allowing what he called new forms of evil and new exterminations.

"There is still, however a legal extermination of human beings who have been conceived but not yet born," he writes.

"And this time we are talking about an extermination which has been allowed by nothing less than democratically elected parliaments where one normally hears appeals for the civil progress of society and all humanity," he writes.

In Germany, a leader of the country's Central Council of Jews called the comparison unacceptable.

At a news conference presenting the book, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's top doctrinal official, dismissed the Jewish charges.

Ratzinger said the Pope "was not trying to put the Holocaust and abortion on the same plane" but only warning that evil lurked everywhere, "even in liberal political systems."

In another section, the Pope describes at length the assassination attempt on May 13, 1981, when Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shot and nearly killed him in St Peter's Square.

Of Agca, the Pope writes the assassination attempt was "not his initiative, someone else masterminded it and someone else commissioned it."

Two trials in the early 1980s failed to prove prosecutors' suspicions that Bulgaria's secret services had masterminded a plot to kill the Pope on behalf of the Soviet Union.

At the time the Polish Pope was a strong supporter of the Solidarity trade union in his native Poland and the Soviet Union saw Solidarity as a threat to the stability of the communist bloc.

The Pope says the assassination attempt against him was perhaps "the last convulsion" of the ideologies of the 20th century -- a clear reference to the Communist bloc.

Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited.

son is wack

the pope is a snedger i hope he dies roaring

jeez, relax, Sinead. Are you Protestant or something?

people ask me why i dont believe in karma.

my response?

look how long the pope has lived.

this man has millions of people hanging onto his every word and this is how he chooses to use his influence? its mind boggling how someone at his level can be this fucking ignorant. think im being crass because we're talking about the pope? i dont. look at the time and place we live in and tell me with straight face that there is any room in our lives for shit like this.

whats even more amazing is the fact that i know many intelligent catholics who choose to associate themselves with this garbage.

uhh..doesn't johnny chill with known pedophiles?

Originally posted by POIESIS@Feb 25 2005, 01:39 PM

uhh..doesn't johnny chill with known pedophiles?

Quoted post

yeah its all cool as long as you dont marry the pastor boy

seriously, what could be more evil than two people loving each other?

i find it disgusting

:haha:

jp is prolly a little sweet himself and is upset he hasn't gotten a man yet.

I was expecting a whole lot of bad comments towards the Pope. You know, why is it such a bad thing that he speaks his mind? True, he has the world hanging on every word he says - so he has to think out his thoughts very carefully. He didn't create the religion, so why harbor all this hate towards him?

I know, a lot of people have problems with Catholicism, their riches, their forgiving nature, but the Pope is not much more than a figurehead, no? I don't know if I'd go so far as to call him a snedger.

I've never heard him say that gay people are evil. Just that they have a disorder, and should be helped, rather than shunned. I see nothing wrong him saying that. Ask the Ayatollah what he thinks, people.

The Pope is just doing his thing. I can't really comment on the Communist accusations, though. I'm gonna try and look stuff up about that.

ideology of evil?

insidious?

that is disparaging enough for me.

fuck the pope.

presiding over all that money, with all that power.

imagine the good he could do.

instead, the church is just getting around to apologizing for some people they fucked up back in the 17th century. what the hell is that?

he inivited fucking cardinals from goddamn boston to rome!

what on earth?! he is rewarding that diocese after all those abused children they abandoned?

the pope should be ashamed of himself.

eh whatever, i just think religion is evil.

I may be part of an Ideology of Evil, but at least I can walk and breathe on my own.

Me:1 Pope:0

"You know, why is it such a bad thing that he speaks his mind? True, he has the world hanging on every word he says - so he has to think out his thoughts very carefully. "

I fancy the alzheimer's would be getting in the way of that... He is entitled to his opinion - I am entitled to laugh at him.

This just in! Pope and George Dubya form stategic alliance against homosexual, babykilling terrorists!

First the axis of evil!

Then outposts of evil!

And now ideology of evil!

Originally posted by effyoo@Feb 24 2005, 11:43 PM

jeez, relax, Sinead. Are you Protestant or something?

Quoted post

sake!

Isn't the catholic church supposed to be the largest private owner of land in the world?

(all those churches add up)

"The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion."

Denis Diderot

French Philosopher

Evil does exist in this world, and the evil definitely have an agenda. It's nice to see that a guy who is trying to defend the world from evil is hated on to such an extent by ultra-liberal spraypainters.

If it could only be so simple...

'Love your God, love yourself and love you neighbour

and you might find that they are all one in the same'

- George Carlin (my pick for the next pope)

I'm not hating on the pope really.

In all honesty the man is just doing his job as far as I'm concerned. To hate him is to hate Christian tradition.

Personally, I prefer the esoteric inner tradition anyways. So I don't really pay a whole lot of mind to all the literalists and their dogmatic followers... reading the bible literally is the lowest level of interpretation.