N
NY.Transfer.News@blythe.org
Guest
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Pope Rat Scolds Latin America (News Roundup)
Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit
excerpted from VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - May 14, 2007.
[The Los Angeles Times reports that the Pope may have alluded to Venezuela
in a speech he made during a visit to Brazil. Critical of the principles
of Marxism as well as those of capitalism, the Pope made reference to
various trends in Latin American history and politics. Though some
received the comments as a rebuke of the current administration in
Venezuela, the Associated Press reports today that Information Minister
Willian Lara rejects the claims. Lara said that not all of the Pope's
statements can be interpreted as making special reference to
Venezuela.-VIO]
AP via The New York Times - May 14, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Pope-Brazil.html
Pope Assails Marxism and Capitalism
The Associated Press
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI lamented the deep divide
between rich and poor in Latin America but told priests to steer clear of
politics as they work to reverse Roman Catholism's waning influence in the
region.
Wrapping up five-day visit to Brazil, the 80-year-old pontiff denounced
Marxism in an hour-long speech Sunday opening a 19-day conference of Latin
American bishops in the shrine city of Aparecida.
''The Marxist system, where it found its way into government, not only
left a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction, but also a
painful destruction of the human spirit,'' the pope said.
He also warned of unfettered capitalism and globalization. Before boarding
a plane for Rome later Sunday, he said the two could give ''rise to a
worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and
deceptive illusions of happiness.''
Marxism still influences some grassroots Catholic activists in Latin
America, remnants of the liberation theology movement Benedict worked to
crush when he was cardinal. Liberation theology holds that the Christian
faith should be reinterpreted specifically to deliver oppressed people
from injustice.
Benedict defended the church's often bloody campaign to Christianize
indigenous people, saying Latin American Indians had been ''silently
longing'' to become Christians when Spanish and Portuguese conquerors took
over their native lands centuries ago.
''In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any
point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the
imposition of a foreign culture,'' he told the bishops.
Throughout his first papal visit to the region, Benedict emphasized
Catholic moral values as the answer to Latin America's social and economic
problems. Returning to that theme Sunday, he warned that legalized
contraception and abortion in Latin America threaten ''the future of the
peoples'' and said the historical Catholic identity of the region is under
assault.
Speaking in Spanish and Portuguese, the pope called on the bishops to
reinvigorate the church, still the dominant faith in the region but
rapidly losing ground to evangelical Protestant churches. He urged bishops
to mold a new generation of leaders, saying Latin America needs more
dedicated Catholics at high levels in government, the media and at
universities.
While Brazil is the most populous Roman Catholic country, home to more
than 120 million of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, the census shows
that people calling themselves Catholics fell to 74 percent in 2000 from
89 percent in 1980. Those calling themselves evangelical Protestants rose
to 15 percent from 7 percent.
The pope did not name any countries in his criticism of capitalism and
Marxism, but Latin America has become deeply divided in recent years amid
a sharp tilt to the left -- with the election of leftist leaders in
Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua and the re-election of President Hugo
Chavez in Venezuela. Center-left leaders govern in Brazil, Argentina and
Uruguay.
Religious experts said Benedict failed to address key challenges to the
church in Latin America, including a severe shortage of priests or a
specific strategy for how parishes should try win back Catholics who have
turned into born-again Protestants or simply stopped going to church.
''Psychologists say what you don't talk about are often the most important
things, and that was the case with the pope,'' said Fernando Altermeyer, a
theology professor at Sao Paulo's Catholic Pontificate University.
Added former Vatican Radio reporter David Gibson: ''By not looking to the
church's structural problems, he's handicapping the chances for success.''
In events in and near Sao Paulo that attracted more than 1 million people,
Benedict criticized the rising tide of Latin Americans flouting the
church's prohibition on premarital sex and divorce and told drug dealers
they will face divine justice for the misery they cause.
Then he headed to the shrine city of Aparecida, telling the bishops to
convince Catholics from all walks of life ''to bring the light of the
Gospel into public life, into culture, economics and politics.''
Benedict called the institution of the family ''one of the most important
treasures of Latin American countries,'' but said it is threatened by
legislation and government policies contrary to church doctrine on
marriage, contraception and abortion.
Mexico City lawmakers recently legalized abortion and gay civil unions,
and the Brazilian government routinely hands out millions of free condoms
to prevent AIDS.
The pope called the region the ''continent of hope'' during a Sunday Mass
before 150,000 faithful in front of the mammoth basilica of Aparecida home
to the nation's patron saint, a black Virgin Mary.
But the turnout fell far short of the 400,000 to 500,000 worshippers local
organizers hoped would show up for Benedict's last big public event of the
papal tour, his longest since becoming pope two years ago.
Waiting to catch a glimpse of the 80-year-old pope at Aparecida's
basilica, 68-year-old Maria Costa said she hoped his trip would revitalize
the church in Brazil.
''Catholics weren't feeling very good with the Church, and that's why so
many were leaving,'' she said. ''I think that could change now. Let's hope
so.''
The Los Angeles Times - May 14, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pope14may14,1,370546.story
Pope ends Brazil trip with fierce speech
By Tracy Wilkinson
APARECIDA, BRAZIL Pope Benedict XVI ended his first pilgrimage to the
Americas much as he began it: with a searing attack on diverse forces,
from Marxism and capitalism to birth control, that he believes threaten
society and the Roman Catholic faith.
And in comment likely to generate controversy in Latin America, the pope
said the New World's indigenous population, "silently longing" for
Christianity, had welcomed the teachings that "came to make their cultures
fruitful, purifying them." Many indigenous rights groups say the conquest
ushered in a period of disease, mass murder, enslavement and the
shattering of native cultures.
Turnout at his final Mass, held at Brazil's most popular religious shrine,
was notably low, underscoring the very problem the pope came here to
address: a Catholic Church in decline.
Wrapping up five days in the world's most populous Catholic country, the
pope inaugurated a major conference of bishops from Latin America and the
Caribbean, telling them they had to do a better job of grooming Catholics
and building up the church.
"One can detect a certain weakening of Christian life in society overall
and of participation in the life of the Catholic Church," he said.
The pope lauded "progress toward democracy" in the region but expressed
concern about "authoritarian forms of government and regimes wedded to
certain ideologies that we thought had been superseded."
The Latin American media widely saw the remark as a jab at leftist
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has frequently clashed with the
church hierarchy and called Christ "the greatest socialist in history."
The pope came to this region to shore up a deeply divided church that is
losing multitudes of followers to Protestant denominations, secularism and
apathy. The trip also was seen as a test for a pope often considered
Eurocentric and aloof to the more populous bases of his far-flung church.
On that score, he did not appear to have made much headway. Only about
150,000 people came to this rural town between Sao Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro for Benedict's final Mass. The open-air celebration took place at
the sanctuary of Our Lady of Aparecida, a shrine to a black Virgin Mary
who is Brazil's patron saint.
The pope told the crowd that only faith in God and the church could give
them hope: "Not a political ideology, not a social movement, not an
economic system."
Flags from various Latin American countries dotted the crowd, which was
boisterous but a fraction of what organizers had predicted. Nuns in dark
habits held aloft icons of the Madonna, and families wore matching
T-shirts blazoned with pictures of saints. And this being Brazil, there
were plenty of bare midriffs, low-cut tank tops and spandex pants.
During Benedict's five days in Brazil, many watching him saw and heard not
so much an embracing and accessible pontiff as the man he was before
becoming pope: the dogmatic Joseph Ratzinger, a professorial theologian
dedicated to guarding and purifying the faith. He stuck studiously to the
fundamental message of his papacy, that unwavering love of God must form
the basis of any endeavor.
It may be something of an irony that he came to a country with a
reputation for hedonism to rail against sex, drugs and lax morals. Or
maybe that was the point.
His exhortations to protect family life and return to the church will
resonate with numerous Latin Americans who are dismayed at the erosion of
tradition in the heavily Roman Catholic continent.
But for many here, Benedict remained a distant pope, his instructions
unrealistic.
"We are not used to him yet," said Ana Cortes, 42, from Monte Patria,
Chile, who came to see the pope and preserved fond memories of Benedict's
charismatic predecessor, John Paul II.
"We see him as far away still," said Cortes, a mother of two who was
wrapped in a large Chilean flag. "But I think in time his words will reach
us."
"I don't think many people are listening to him," said her friend, Nilse
Barraza, 47.
Augusto Dellava, 17, who came to the Mass from Montevideo, Uruguay, said
good Christians should be able to relate to the pope. "He talks a lot
about youths. We are the future of the church," he said. "He demands a lot
from us. It's not easy, but it's worth it."
The 80-year-old pope did not focus much on poverty during this trip, nor
did he orchestrate any of the grand gestures that endeared John Paul to
his followers. When John Paul visited Brazil in 1980, he gave his gold
cardinal's ring to the residents of a Rio de Janeiro slum he visited.
Benedict did not go to a slum nor did he meet with poor people, save for
the briefest of encounters outside the Sao Paulo cathedral.
Speaking to the bishops on Sunday, he said the "preferential option for
the poor" was implicit in faith in Christ, adding that the people of the
region "have the right to a full life, proper to the children of God,
under conditions that are more human" and free from hunger and violence.
The pope blamed both capitalism and Marxism for removing God from life and
dehumanizing society. The pope's views on Marxism are well-known, but his
inclusion of capitalism in the same critique was surprising.
Marxism left a legacy of economic and ecological destruction and "also the
painful destruction of the human spirit," he said. By the same token, he
added, capitalism widened the gap between rich and poor, "giving rise to a
worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and the
deceptive illusions of happiness."
Sunday's speech to the bishops was the centerpiece lecture of the Brazil
trip. It kicked off the fifth General Conference of the Latin American
Bishops, a 19-day policy meeting that is held approximately every decade.
As he has done frequently, the pope condemned abortion, gay marriage and
"the facile illusions of instant happiness and the deceptive paradise
offered by drugs, pleasure and alcohol."
He said priests had no business in politics but that Christian values
should permeate political thought and leadership.
The pope dedicated only a small portion of his remarks to the shortage of
priests in Latin America, a problem that church officials in Brazil
consider to be especially acute. Priests are outnumbered by evangelical
Protestant preachers 2 to 1, and vast swaths of this huge country are
without bishops.
Benedict has used his homilies and speeches here to say that the more
creative, folkloric, lively Mass often conducted in Brazil is permissible
only as long as traditional doctrine and liturgy are followed. Some
priests and lay people believe the way to save the Catholic Church in
Latin America is to adopt the aggressive, rousing preaching practices of
their Pentecostal rivals.
On the fringes of Sunday's Mass, a group of 25 theology students from a
Brazilian university marched with pictures of "martyrs" who have not
figured prominently in any of the pope's utterances. These included
Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, who was slain while celebrating
Mass in 1980, and Dorothy Stang, a U.S.-born nun who was killed in Brazil
two years ago defending indigenous rights against loggers. The students'
banner declared they were the "church of the option for the poor and the
excluded."
As with Sunday's Mass, attendance and fervor at most of Benedict's
appearances here were muted for a papal visit to a predominantly Catholic
country. By way of contrast, the annual "March for Jesus" by evangelicals
in Sao Paulo attracts at least 1.5 million people.
Despite that, some analysts said the exposure of the Brazilian public to
Benedict would help make him a more familiar and appreciated figure.
"The country knows a new image of the pope, an image they didn't know
before," Fernando Altemeyer, a theologian at the Pontifical Catholic
University in Sao Paulo, told Folha Online, a Brazilian newspaper website.
But others suggested the gulf may be too wide for this cerebral pope to
narrow.
"There is this real disconnect between what the pope says and the reality
among Catholics in Brazil," said David Fleischer, a political scientist at
the University of Brasilia.
AP via International Herald Tribune - May 14, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/14/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Pope.php
Venezuela denies papal condemnation of Marxism was directed at Chavez
The Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela's top government spokesman insisted on
Monday that the pope's condemnation of Marxism wasn't directed at
President Hugo Chavez, who says he's steering Venezuela toward "21st
century socialism."
"We all know that the current Pope is characterized as a conservative man,
but that doesn't necessarily mean that we must automatically think that
any word he utters ... is against Venezuela," Information Minister Willian
Lara told state television.
Pope Benedict XVI concluded a trip to neighboring Brazil on Sunday by
telling a bishop's conference that Marxism as well as unchecked
capitalism and globalization were to blame for many of the region's
problems.
"The Marxist system, where it found its way into government, not only left
a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction, but also a painful
destruction of the human spirit," the pope said.
Chavez has explicitly embraced Marxism and is a close ally of communist
Cuba. Left-leaning leaders also govern in Bolivia, Eduador, Nicaragua,
Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, though most do not claim to be
Marxist.
Marxism also still influences some Catholic activists in Latin America,
remnants of the liberation theology movement Benedict moved to crush as a
cardinal. Liberation theology holds that faith should help free the
oppressed.
Chavez also says he is a Catholic and calls Jesus an exemplary
revolutionary. But he has repeatedly clashed with Venezuelan church
leaders since his election in 1998.
Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino recently criticized the government's decision
not to renew the broadcast license of opposition-sided TV channel RCTV.
Other priests have warned of increasing authoritarianism under Chavez.
Most Venezuelans are Roman Catholic and the church wields tremendous
influence among parishioners.
================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Search Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/htdig/search.html
List Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
================================================================
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (FreeBSD)
iD8DBQFGSK8Viz2i76ou9wQRAqJMAKC6omGb4Ri86xTIBY9DaoejuOr8vACfYbaT
4q8MAwOt3m07ZdFT8zD07iM=
=vSqt
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Hash: SHA1
Pope Rat Scolds Latin America (News Roundup)
Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit
excerpted from VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - May 14, 2007.
[The Los Angeles Times reports that the Pope may have alluded to Venezuela
in a speech he made during a visit to Brazil. Critical of the principles
of Marxism as well as those of capitalism, the Pope made reference to
various trends in Latin American history and politics. Though some
received the comments as a rebuke of the current administration in
Venezuela, the Associated Press reports today that Information Minister
Willian Lara rejects the claims. Lara said that not all of the Pope's
statements can be interpreted as making special reference to
Venezuela.-VIO]
AP via The New York Times - May 14, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Pope-Brazil.html
Pope Assails Marxism and Capitalism
The Associated Press
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI lamented the deep divide
between rich and poor in Latin America but told priests to steer clear of
politics as they work to reverse Roman Catholism's waning influence in the
region.
Wrapping up five-day visit to Brazil, the 80-year-old pontiff denounced
Marxism in an hour-long speech Sunday opening a 19-day conference of Latin
American bishops in the shrine city of Aparecida.
''The Marxist system, where it found its way into government, not only
left a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction, but also a
painful destruction of the human spirit,'' the pope said.
He also warned of unfettered capitalism and globalization. Before boarding
a plane for Rome later Sunday, he said the two could give ''rise to a
worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and
deceptive illusions of happiness.''
Marxism still influences some grassroots Catholic activists in Latin
America, remnants of the liberation theology movement Benedict worked to
crush when he was cardinal. Liberation theology holds that the Christian
faith should be reinterpreted specifically to deliver oppressed people
from injustice.
Benedict defended the church's often bloody campaign to Christianize
indigenous people, saying Latin American Indians had been ''silently
longing'' to become Christians when Spanish and Portuguese conquerors took
over their native lands centuries ago.
''In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any
point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the
imposition of a foreign culture,'' he told the bishops.
Throughout his first papal visit to the region, Benedict emphasized
Catholic moral values as the answer to Latin America's social and economic
problems. Returning to that theme Sunday, he warned that legalized
contraception and abortion in Latin America threaten ''the future of the
peoples'' and said the historical Catholic identity of the region is under
assault.
Speaking in Spanish and Portuguese, the pope called on the bishops to
reinvigorate the church, still the dominant faith in the region but
rapidly losing ground to evangelical Protestant churches. He urged bishops
to mold a new generation of leaders, saying Latin America needs more
dedicated Catholics at high levels in government, the media and at
universities.
While Brazil is the most populous Roman Catholic country, home to more
than 120 million of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, the census shows
that people calling themselves Catholics fell to 74 percent in 2000 from
89 percent in 1980. Those calling themselves evangelical Protestants rose
to 15 percent from 7 percent.
The pope did not name any countries in his criticism of capitalism and
Marxism, but Latin America has become deeply divided in recent years amid
a sharp tilt to the left -- with the election of leftist leaders in
Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua and the re-election of President Hugo
Chavez in Venezuela. Center-left leaders govern in Brazil, Argentina and
Uruguay.
Religious experts said Benedict failed to address key challenges to the
church in Latin America, including a severe shortage of priests or a
specific strategy for how parishes should try win back Catholics who have
turned into born-again Protestants or simply stopped going to church.
''Psychologists say what you don't talk about are often the most important
things, and that was the case with the pope,'' said Fernando Altermeyer, a
theology professor at Sao Paulo's Catholic Pontificate University.
Added former Vatican Radio reporter David Gibson: ''By not looking to the
church's structural problems, he's handicapping the chances for success.''
In events in and near Sao Paulo that attracted more than 1 million people,
Benedict criticized the rising tide of Latin Americans flouting the
church's prohibition on premarital sex and divorce and told drug dealers
they will face divine justice for the misery they cause.
Then he headed to the shrine city of Aparecida, telling the bishops to
convince Catholics from all walks of life ''to bring the light of the
Gospel into public life, into culture, economics and politics.''
Benedict called the institution of the family ''one of the most important
treasures of Latin American countries,'' but said it is threatened by
legislation and government policies contrary to church doctrine on
marriage, contraception and abortion.
Mexico City lawmakers recently legalized abortion and gay civil unions,
and the Brazilian government routinely hands out millions of free condoms
to prevent AIDS.
The pope called the region the ''continent of hope'' during a Sunday Mass
before 150,000 faithful in front of the mammoth basilica of Aparecida home
to the nation's patron saint, a black Virgin Mary.
But the turnout fell far short of the 400,000 to 500,000 worshippers local
organizers hoped would show up for Benedict's last big public event of the
papal tour, his longest since becoming pope two years ago.
Waiting to catch a glimpse of the 80-year-old pope at Aparecida's
basilica, 68-year-old Maria Costa said she hoped his trip would revitalize
the church in Brazil.
''Catholics weren't feeling very good with the Church, and that's why so
many were leaving,'' she said. ''I think that could change now. Let's hope
so.''
The Los Angeles Times - May 14, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pope14may14,1,370546.story
Pope ends Brazil trip with fierce speech
By Tracy Wilkinson
APARECIDA, BRAZIL Pope Benedict XVI ended his first pilgrimage to the
Americas much as he began it: with a searing attack on diverse forces,
from Marxism and capitalism to birth control, that he believes threaten
society and the Roman Catholic faith.
And in comment likely to generate controversy in Latin America, the pope
said the New World's indigenous population, "silently longing" for
Christianity, had welcomed the teachings that "came to make their cultures
fruitful, purifying them." Many indigenous rights groups say the conquest
ushered in a period of disease, mass murder, enslavement and the
shattering of native cultures.
Turnout at his final Mass, held at Brazil's most popular religious shrine,
was notably low, underscoring the very problem the pope came here to
address: a Catholic Church in decline.
Wrapping up five days in the world's most populous Catholic country, the
pope inaugurated a major conference of bishops from Latin America and the
Caribbean, telling them they had to do a better job of grooming Catholics
and building up the church.
"One can detect a certain weakening of Christian life in society overall
and of participation in the life of the Catholic Church," he said.
The pope lauded "progress toward democracy" in the region but expressed
concern about "authoritarian forms of government and regimes wedded to
certain ideologies that we thought had been superseded."
The Latin American media widely saw the remark as a jab at leftist
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has frequently clashed with the
church hierarchy and called Christ "the greatest socialist in history."
The pope came to this region to shore up a deeply divided church that is
losing multitudes of followers to Protestant denominations, secularism and
apathy. The trip also was seen as a test for a pope often considered
Eurocentric and aloof to the more populous bases of his far-flung church.
On that score, he did not appear to have made much headway. Only about
150,000 people came to this rural town between Sao Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro for Benedict's final Mass. The open-air celebration took place at
the sanctuary of Our Lady of Aparecida, a shrine to a black Virgin Mary
who is Brazil's patron saint.
The pope told the crowd that only faith in God and the church could give
them hope: "Not a political ideology, not a social movement, not an
economic system."
Flags from various Latin American countries dotted the crowd, which was
boisterous but a fraction of what organizers had predicted. Nuns in dark
habits held aloft icons of the Madonna, and families wore matching
T-shirts blazoned with pictures of saints. And this being Brazil, there
were plenty of bare midriffs, low-cut tank tops and spandex pants.
During Benedict's five days in Brazil, many watching him saw and heard not
so much an embracing and accessible pontiff as the man he was before
becoming pope: the dogmatic Joseph Ratzinger, a professorial theologian
dedicated to guarding and purifying the faith. He stuck studiously to the
fundamental message of his papacy, that unwavering love of God must form
the basis of any endeavor.
It may be something of an irony that he came to a country with a
reputation for hedonism to rail against sex, drugs and lax morals. Or
maybe that was the point.
His exhortations to protect family life and return to the church will
resonate with numerous Latin Americans who are dismayed at the erosion of
tradition in the heavily Roman Catholic continent.
But for many here, Benedict remained a distant pope, his instructions
unrealistic.
"We are not used to him yet," said Ana Cortes, 42, from Monte Patria,
Chile, who came to see the pope and preserved fond memories of Benedict's
charismatic predecessor, John Paul II.
"We see him as far away still," said Cortes, a mother of two who was
wrapped in a large Chilean flag. "But I think in time his words will reach
us."
"I don't think many people are listening to him," said her friend, Nilse
Barraza, 47.
Augusto Dellava, 17, who came to the Mass from Montevideo, Uruguay, said
good Christians should be able to relate to the pope. "He talks a lot
about youths. We are the future of the church," he said. "He demands a lot
from us. It's not easy, but it's worth it."
The 80-year-old pope did not focus much on poverty during this trip, nor
did he orchestrate any of the grand gestures that endeared John Paul to
his followers. When John Paul visited Brazil in 1980, he gave his gold
cardinal's ring to the residents of a Rio de Janeiro slum he visited.
Benedict did not go to a slum nor did he meet with poor people, save for
the briefest of encounters outside the Sao Paulo cathedral.
Speaking to the bishops on Sunday, he said the "preferential option for
the poor" was implicit in faith in Christ, adding that the people of the
region "have the right to a full life, proper to the children of God,
under conditions that are more human" and free from hunger and violence.
The pope blamed both capitalism and Marxism for removing God from life and
dehumanizing society. The pope's views on Marxism are well-known, but his
inclusion of capitalism in the same critique was surprising.
Marxism left a legacy of economic and ecological destruction and "also the
painful destruction of the human spirit," he said. By the same token, he
added, capitalism widened the gap between rich and poor, "giving rise to a
worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and the
deceptive illusions of happiness."
Sunday's speech to the bishops was the centerpiece lecture of the Brazil
trip. It kicked off the fifth General Conference of the Latin American
Bishops, a 19-day policy meeting that is held approximately every decade.
As he has done frequently, the pope condemned abortion, gay marriage and
"the facile illusions of instant happiness and the deceptive paradise
offered by drugs, pleasure and alcohol."
He said priests had no business in politics but that Christian values
should permeate political thought and leadership.
The pope dedicated only a small portion of his remarks to the shortage of
priests in Latin America, a problem that church officials in Brazil
consider to be especially acute. Priests are outnumbered by evangelical
Protestant preachers 2 to 1, and vast swaths of this huge country are
without bishops.
Benedict has used his homilies and speeches here to say that the more
creative, folkloric, lively Mass often conducted in Brazil is permissible
only as long as traditional doctrine and liturgy are followed. Some
priests and lay people believe the way to save the Catholic Church in
Latin America is to adopt the aggressive, rousing preaching practices of
their Pentecostal rivals.
On the fringes of Sunday's Mass, a group of 25 theology students from a
Brazilian university marched with pictures of "martyrs" who have not
figured prominently in any of the pope's utterances. These included
Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, who was slain while celebrating
Mass in 1980, and Dorothy Stang, a U.S.-born nun who was killed in Brazil
two years ago defending indigenous rights against loggers. The students'
banner declared they were the "church of the option for the poor and the
excluded."
As with Sunday's Mass, attendance and fervor at most of Benedict's
appearances here were muted for a papal visit to a predominantly Catholic
country. By way of contrast, the annual "March for Jesus" by evangelicals
in Sao Paulo attracts at least 1.5 million people.
Despite that, some analysts said the exposure of the Brazilian public to
Benedict would help make him a more familiar and appreciated figure.
"The country knows a new image of the pope, an image they didn't know
before," Fernando Altemeyer, a theologian at the Pontifical Catholic
University in Sao Paulo, told Folha Online, a Brazilian newspaper website.
But others suggested the gulf may be too wide for this cerebral pope to
narrow.
"There is this real disconnect between what the pope says and the reality
among Catholics in Brazil," said David Fleischer, a political scientist at
the University of Brasilia.
AP via International Herald Tribune - May 14, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/14/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Pope.php
Venezuela denies papal condemnation of Marxism was directed at Chavez
The Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela's top government spokesman insisted on
Monday that the pope's condemnation of Marxism wasn't directed at
President Hugo Chavez, who says he's steering Venezuela toward "21st
century socialism."
"We all know that the current Pope is characterized as a conservative man,
but that doesn't necessarily mean that we must automatically think that
any word he utters ... is against Venezuela," Information Minister Willian
Lara told state television.
Pope Benedict XVI concluded a trip to neighboring Brazil on Sunday by
telling a bishop's conference that Marxism as well as unchecked
capitalism and globalization were to blame for many of the region's
problems.
"The Marxist system, where it found its way into government, not only left
a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction, but also a painful
destruction of the human spirit," the pope said.
Chavez has explicitly embraced Marxism and is a close ally of communist
Cuba. Left-leaning leaders also govern in Bolivia, Eduador, Nicaragua,
Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, though most do not claim to be
Marxist.
Marxism also still influences some Catholic activists in Latin America,
remnants of the liberation theology movement Benedict moved to crush as a
cardinal. Liberation theology holds that faith should help free the
oppressed.
Chavez also says he is a Catholic and calls Jesus an exemplary
revolutionary. But he has repeatedly clashed with Venezuelan church
leaders since his election in 1998.
Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino recently criticized the government's decision
not to renew the broadcast license of opposition-sided TV channel RCTV.
Other priests have warned of increasing authoritarianism under Chavez.
Most Venezuelans are Roman Catholic and the church wields tremendous
influence among parishioners.
================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Search Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/htdig/search.html
List Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
================================================================
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (FreeBSD)
iD8DBQFGSK8Viz2i76ou9wQRAqJMAKC6omGb4Ri86xTIBY9DaoejuOr8vACfYbaT
4q8MAwOt3m07ZdFT8zD07iM=
=vSqt
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
