Drudge Report headlines Pope Benedict as "rebuking 'satanic' society"
As you can see from the attached picture, the popular internet news portal, the "Drudge Report", is currently (~1AM EST, April 14 - and it looks like it will probably run for the remainder of the night) headlining this news caption:"POPE TO REBUKE 'SATANIC' SOCIETY"
The headline links to this article, by Ruth Gledhill (Religion Correspondent for the U.K. Times) who pulls several quotations from Pope Benedict's "Way of the Cross" for this Good Friday (the full text of which is available from Zenit here, part 1 & here, part 2), but was actually written by Archbishop Comastri, Vicar General of the Holy See.
Ruth Gledhill's article is titled "Pope condemns geneticists 'who play at being God'" and includes a rather innocent picture of Pope Benedict with the caption "Pope Benedict XVI will deliver a blistering attack on the mores of modern society." Next follows a lengthy list of some of the most vitriolic quotes contained in the "Way of the Cross" meditations written by Abp. Comastri, with comments from her such as "The tone of the meditations is striking in its contrast to the contemporary fashion for feel-good religion."
Oh well, read and judge for yourself, but it just seems to me that the article tends towards that "we all expected it - the Rottweiler Pope is finally baring his teeth" fallacy, and I would prefer to have it always acknowledged that every one of Pope Benedict's "blistering attack on the mores of modern society" is motivated from his love for the people of modern society.
In her weblog entry on the same subject, she goes on to say:
"It [the text the Way of the Cross] shows clearly that there is another side to this Pope besides that revealed [interesting, she reads Ignatius Scooop it seems] in Deus Caritas Est. Some cynics might argue the rottweiler is unleashed and start going round saying: 'We told you so all along.' O[t]hers might feel tempted to dismiss it as a rant. Myself, I quite like it. It is always quite nice when a top cleric goes on a really top rant about the decadent narcissism of our world and doesn't mention the media, not even once. And if the Pope is not going to bang on about sin and remind us it still exists, then whoI left the following comment on her post (attempting to jump the gun on other commentators), but we'll see if it actually gets accepted...
is?"
Basically, my issue is that she (intentionally or not) takes many harsh quotations out of context and thereby gives the impression (or at least leaves the door open to say) that this is the only thing Pope Benedict is teaching on Good Friday - at least, that's certainly the way the Drudge Report seems to have taken it... comments? Am I overreacting?"You say: "It shows clearly that there is another side to this Pope besides that revealed in Deus Caritas Est."
Well, I would argue instead that these are TWO sides of the SAME coin for the Pope. Why? Look at the Zenit text, the very first words are these:
"In making the "Way of the Cross," we are struck by the certainty of two things: the destructive power of sin and the healing power of God's Love."
Why claim that Pope Benedict is ONLY talking about the "destructive power of sin" when ACTUALLY he is talking MOSTLY about "the healing power of God's Love"?
It would seem to me that YOUR portrayal of what the Pope is saying is what is one-sided in this situation. Thanks and Happy Easter."
Update: My comment was accepted, along with many others. Feel free to add your own here.
AMP
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