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Snow Mountain Wallpaper

John Paul II: Dubious Legacy

This article comes from Deutsche Welle.

The point here is not to slander Karol Wojtyla.  He was certainly not the only one responsible for the Vatican's activity during his term as pontiff.  However, it is important to provide some measure of contrast to the wild praise that has been showered on him during the past week.
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Criticism grows as Pope John Paul II's beatification proceeds 

After more than 25 years as the leader of the Catholic Church, many of Pope John Paul II's followers want to see him made a saint. As the deceased pontiff comes closer to canonization, others are criticizing the Vatican.

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims travelled to Rome this weekend for the beatification of Pope John Paul II, whose body was exhumed Friday in preparation for the event.

Leaders and delegates from around the world also headed to the Eternal City to look on as the Vatican conveys the title of "blessed" upon the late pontiff on Sunday.

Yet some voices from within the Church are calling the move to sanctify the former pope a mistake.

Thousands flocking to Rome

In John Paul's beatification ceremony - the third of four steps to canonization - the Catholic Church will recognize John Paul as being in Heaven and as able to intercede on behalf of those
who pray to him.

Some 500,000 people in total are expected to attend the Vatican ceremony, which will be relayed on giant screens around the Holy City. Of them, around 300,000 pilgrims are expected to come from outside the Italian capital.             

Sunday's ceremony was preceded on Saturday by a prayer vigil at the Circus Maximus, an ancient Roman stadium, where an estimated 200,000 pilgrims lit candles.

46-year-old Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, the French nun whose healing was recognized by the Vatican as the miracle needed for John Paul's beatification told pilgrims at the vigil how she attributed her inexplicable recovery from Parkinson's to the intercession of John Paul.

After the vigil, eight central Rome churches were to remain open all night for pilgrims to pray.

The Pope 'turned a blind eye'

While half a million are expected to attend the event, a support group for victims of pedophile priests on Friday urged the Vatican to slow down its rush to sanctify the late pope.

"The Church hierarchy can avoid rubbing more salt into these wounds by slowing down their hasty drive to confer sainthood on the pontiff," said Barbara Blaine, head of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) group.

"In more than 25 years as the most powerful religious figure on the planet, John Paul II did almost nothing to safeguard kids," she said.

Another critic of the pope, the Swiss theologian Hans Küng said that John Paul II was not a good role model for Catholics, saying he was "intolerant and opposed to dialog."

In 1979, Küng was stripped of his right to teach in the Catholic Church due to his questioning of the pope's infallibility.

Controversial guest

Of the world leaders to visit the Vatican for the event, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will likely draw the most attention.

Mugabe, who has been widely criticized for human rights abuses in his country, is banned from travel to the European Union, but the Vatican, unlike Italy, is not a member of the bloc.

The Zimbabwean president will travel through Rome; however, following pacts between Italy and the Vatican, people heading to the Vatican via Italy cannot be impeded.

Other leaders expected to attend include Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, Belgium's King Albert II, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

After the Mass, the faithful will be able to file past John Paul's casket, which will be on display inside St. Peter's Basilica and will later be given a new burial spot in a crypt near Michelangelo's Pieta.

Becoming a saint

The canonization process of the former pope was set in motion by current Pope Benedict XVI shortly after John Paul's death in 2005. In order for the Vatican to declare John Paul a saint, they must be convinced that he was worked at least two miracles.

In addition to the Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, thousands have sent their stories to the Vatican describing how they were helped by prayers to the late pope. Of these, 270 testimonies of presumed miracles have been selected to be investigated.

An unlikely relic

Pilgrims to Rome this weekend will also have the chance to see the former pope's bloodied vest from when he was shot in a 1981 assassination attempt.

"It's an incredibly moving relic: a symbol of faith but also of the pain, fear and suffering in those moments," said Sister Beatrice from the convent where the previously little-known item has been kept hidden.

The bloodied garment inscribed with the initials "J. P." was cut off the wounded pontiff in a hospital emergency room and cast aside as doctors rushed to save his life, Beatrice said.

It was picked up by a nurse, Anna Stanghellini, who stashed it in the back of a cupboard at her home, keeping it secret for years before she revealed it to Sister Beatrice in 2000.

The former pope, who survived the murder attempt, was known to his followers as a builder of bridges; he was considered by many instrumental to the establishment of democracy in his native Poland, as well as improving the Church's ties with Jews and Muslims.

Author: David Levitz (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

Editor: Andreas Illmer

Osama Bin Laden goes to meet Allah

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb 10:31).

Osama bin Laden will have a bit of a surprise this morning: no lakes of wine; no endless stream of virgins; no pat on the back from his inspirational prophet; no utterance from Allah of ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (in Arabic). No, today he stands in the fearful presence of YHWH, and the wages of sin is death. Osama Bin Laden has committed one or two sins of some considerable magnitude, was quite unrepentant, and did not accept Christ as his Lord and Saviour. His Grace therefore suspects that things might be a little warm for Osama today. His lake of wine will be a lake of fire: his tongue will burn and his thirst will never be quenched. The only virgins he’ll meet will be the worm variety, for the pit of Hell is a place of decomposition and destruction; of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

On his many journeys across the Middle East, Bin Laden probably never visited the Valley of Hinnom just outside Jerusalem. But he’s enjoying the view today. And it’s not the sort of place from which you’d want to send a postcard or an inspirational video exhorting your Muslim brothers to martyr themselves. It is an awful place of burning sulphur, rotting carcases and dead men’s bones. Bin Laden has gone to the place prepared for the devil and his angels, where the beast and the false prophet will be, to be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

And to those who do not agree with His Grace’s rather literalist understanding of the afterlife, he does not care: he feels better for having conveyed a sense of what it must be to fall into the hands of the living God, without the hope of the salvation of Christ. There is no obituary to write for Bin laden, other than ‘good riddance’. He has reaped simply what he sowed. Justice has been done. The world is all the better for his passing.