Saturday 14 March 2009

Why I love the Pope

Pope Benedict XVI is a Pope for the modern era. In a world where atheists, homosexuals, and (God forbid!) homosexual atheists parade their sins in full view of all decent members of society his guidance shines as a paragon of moral teaching.

Long gone are the glorious days of the Crusades, of course, in a time before so-called "political correctness" saw us giving "rights" to blasphemers and infidels. But while the Pope no longer wages religious wars, his instruction of the faithful remains unquestionable.

Take the recent example of Bishop Richard Williamson, who made certain remarks regarding concentration camps that were perhaps a little out-of-touch. Unfortunately when the Pope lifted Williamson's excommunication he didn't realise Williamson held such views - after all lifting an excommunication is such a minor thing the Vatican would only have done the most cursory of research. Besides, Williamson had only declared his holocaust-denial on Swedish TV - and I don't suppose they get Swedish TV in the Vatican! As soon as the Pope was informed, his action was decisive and immediate - he had his staff issue a frankly poetic statement saying the excommunication had "nothing to do with the personal opinions of a person". Then he was told that wasn't good enough, by Israel's envoy to the Vatican. And The Chief Rabbinate of Israel. And France's Europe Minister. And the German Chancellor. So he exercised his power as God's representative on Earth and demanded Williamson publicly recant his views. Which Williamson still hasn't done.

Another demonstration of the Pope's ironclad morality and certitude of purpose came shortly thereafter when he deftly linked saving the environment with not-being-anything-but-heterosexual in the beautiful phrase "human ecology". In his end-of-year speech to senior Vatican staff the Pope denounced gender theory as likely to cause the destruction of the human race, and declared lifelong wedlock between a man and a woman "the sacrament of creation". Fairly typical stuff - but here again the liberals spring into action, harping on about rights and oppression and all the rest of it. A lesser Pope would've responded with "**** you, I'm the Pope, I've got the hotline to God" and moved on - but not Benedict! No, he realises that would be inappropriate for today's world and has his staff declare the liberals to have misunderstood - "He was speaking more generally about gender theories which overlook the fundamental difference in creation between men and women" apparently.

What people forget about moral guardians like Pope Benedict XVI is that they hold back the floodwater of corruption. They stand, seemingly alone, reinforcing the dam against the tide. Every hundred years or so they move the dam back a bit to make it slightly easier but the new position is just as valid and holy as the last.

Another admirable aspect of Benedict is his refusal to conform to the modern obsession with vanity. In these days where every public figure has fashion advisors and makeup artists to have them present a flawless image, Benedict's purity again shines through by always looking like the Emperor out of Star Wars. Or an evil old Nazi.

God bless him!

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