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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Ben Yehuda on May 11, 2009, 09:49:18 AM
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http://wcbstv.com/national/pope.palestinian.state.2.1006541.html
TEL AVIV, Israel (CBS) ―
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Pope Benedict XVI delivers a speech before boarding an airplane at Amman's airport heading to Tel Aviv on May 11, 2009.
Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images
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numSlides of totalImages Related Slideshows Celebs Who Lean To The Right Celebrities In Playboy More Openly Gay Celebrities 2009 Celebrity Deaths Big Fame, Fake Name Celebrities Funniest Caption Contest New York's Archbishops Hardcore Liberal Celebrities Related StoriesPope Urges Middle East Christians To Persevere (5/10/2009)
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Related LinksCBS News Interactive: Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI has called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, immediately plunging into Middle East politics upon his arrival in Israel.
That position could put him at odds with his Israeli hosts.
The pope also pledged to "honor the memory" of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, speaking at the airport after he landed Monday.
Benedict has had to tread carefully on his Middle East visit after coming under sharp criticism from both Muslims and Jews for past statements.
He hopes his weeklong, emotion-charged trip to the Holy Land, which began with three days in neighboring Jordan, will improve relations with Jews and Muslims.
The pilgrimage is Benedict's first to the region as pope.
The Holy Father landed at Israel's international airport in Tel Aviv, where Israeli leaders, including President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had gathered for a welcoming ceremony.
During his five-day visit, the pope will tour Israel's national Holocaust memorial and visit holy sites in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The visit has generated some controversy in Israel because the pope spent time in the Hitler Youth corps as a youth. Benedict has said he was coerced.
The German pontiff will also have to tread carefully in Israel because he sparked outrage among Jews earlier this year when he revoked the excommunication of an ultraconservative bishop who denies the Holocaust.
In Jordan on Sunday, Benedict XVI praised the courage of Middle East Christians who cling to their faith despite war and adversity, addressing a crowd of 20,000 who filled a sports stadium where he celebrated the first open-air Mass of his Holy Land pilgrimage.
For years, the church has been alarmed by the declining presence of Christians in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East, ancient communities driven out by conflict and poverty.
"The Catholic community here is deeply touched by the difficulties and uncertainties which affect the people of the Middle East," Benedict said, speaking in English at the Mass. "May you never forget the great dignity which derives from your Christian heritage, or fail to sense the loving solidarity of all your brothers and sisters in the church throughout the world."
He said fidelity to the church's mission in the Middle East "demands of each of you a particular kind of courage" that requires building ties with people of other religions and cultures.
The pope was welcomed at the stadium in Arabic by the Latin rite patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, who recalled that Jordan has taken in more than 1 million Iraqi refugees since the start of the war, some 40,000 of them Christians. According to Vatican statistics, Jordanian Christians in a community that dates back nearly 2,000 years are less than 2 percent of the country's overwhelmingly Muslim population.
Many Iraqi Christians were forced to flee the sectarian violence following the 2003 U.S.-led war in Iraq. Muslim militants targeted Iraqi Christians, many who were killed, raped or kidnapped. Several churches across Iraq were bombed, and clergy were killed.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Palestinian Christians, squeezed between Muslims and Jews in the Holy Land, have been immigrating in high numbers - mainly to the West. In Egypt, which has the biggest Christian community in the region at about 10 percent of the country's 76 million, Coptic Christians have strained relations with Muslims. Violent clashes have erupted between the two sides in recent years.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Benedict was pleased with his Mideast trip so far and believed he had accomplished his objective of warming relations with Muslims, saying the dialogue had taken "new steps forward."
The pontiff angered many in the Muslim world three years ago when he quoted a Medieval text that characterized some of Islam's Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."
During his trip, however, the Pope has stressed he has "deep respect" for Islam while at the same time denouncing what he called the "manipulation of religion" for political purposes that has led to violence, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth.
Sunday afternoon, Benedict traveled some 30 miles from Amman to Bethany beyond the Jordan river, the site of Christ's baptism. He got into a golf cart, with King Abdullah II seated beside him, and was driven a few yards from the riverbed.
He also blessed the foundation stones of Latin and Greek Melkite churches and kept up his theme, speaking of the contributions Christians can make to end violence and suffering in the Middle East "inspired by the example of Jesus, of reconciliation and peace."
Catholics from across the Middle East attended Sunday's Mass. Many held up flags from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other countries and applauded the pope's words and shouted out his name. Forty Iraqi children making their first communion wore long white robes as they waved the Iraqi and Vatican flags.
In his homily, Benedict said he hoped Christians would always get the "material and moral assistance" they need. He also paid tribute to Christian women in the region, saying many have "devoted their lives to building peace and fostering harmony."
Father Raymond Mousalli, an Iraqi priest, said Iraqis of all faiths must sit together and find peace after years of war.
"The holy father speaks here, and his voice is heard in the Middle East especially by Iraqi Christians who are suffering a lot," Mousalli said.
Peter Samaan, a 15-year-old Iraqi dressed in a white communion robe, said he hoped Benedict could one day travel to Iraq.
"We Christians want to return. We are strangers in this country." Samaan said, adding that his family fled Iraq to avoid persecution.
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I thought this pontiff wanted a "closer Catholic-Jewish bond". LOL.
PS did you notice how the Holocaust-denying Nazi bishop is referred to as an "ultraconservative"? Nice!
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Not one Catholic Priest or Pope protested or tried to stop the Holocaust, until it was too late.
No Way will I ever approve or sanction a Palestinian State!
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What about the black Hitler blackie osama and his assistant SS blackie rev wright
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Trampling over the Jews and Israel is once again becoming the path of least resistance.
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Justice can not be expected.
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They have been against the Jewish state since a long time. But since they cant make this state a non-jewish state, they want to take every piece of the holy jewish land one by one. The same ploy applied in India. The Pope works with the daughter of Italian Fascist .Sonia Gandhi a socialist Pro-muslim head of present ruling government in India.
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how does someone with a nazi past think he can come to our country and call for a "terrorist" state in the land of israel? israel belongs to the jews!
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A sacred nation after 2000 years and every mortal seems to be against it.
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Obama and self-haters and muslim nations and nazis are bigger enemies than the Pope. He is a shame, but John Paul II. was much better.
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John Paul II. was much better.
Maybe in terms of relations with Judaism. But even that I am not sure. I think he was highly critical of Israel during his early years. Anywho, he was a rabid anti-Serb. He was among the first to recognize the independence of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He supported Tudjman and Izetbegovic and even visited both countries after the war offering his sympathies to them. In 1997, despite protests from Jewish groups, he beatified Alojze Stepinac, a Roman Catholic archbishop in Zagreb during WWII who collaborated with Pavelic's Ustasha regime and helped in the Genocide of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies.
During the wars in the Balkans, he was highly critical of Serbs and accused them of commiting atrocities, urged the U.S. to bomb Serbs, meanwhile he never recognized the Holocaust in Yugoslavia or recognized the fact that there was a Genocide against Serbs and Jews in Croatia and BH during WWII. Nor did he condemn those atrocities. But of course we all know about the Catholic Church's role in the Holocaust...
Before you say a statement like that, make sure you know what you're talking about.
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This Pope is an anti-semite. I think he needs to read his Bible properly.
How dare he call for the vivisection of little Israel?
He wants to create a PLO terror state within Biblical Israel. Why can't he make the same appeal for the creation of Assyria for the Assyrian Christians in Northern Iraq and for a coptic homeland in northern Egypt?
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This Pope is an anti-semite. I think he needs to read his Bible properly.
How dare he call for the vivisection of little Israel?
He wants to create a PLO terror state within Biblical Israel. Why can't he make the same appeal for the creation of Assyria for the Assyrian Christians in Northern Iraq and for a coptic homeland in northern Egypt?
More then an anti-Semite I think the Pope is just plain nuts. Why even touch the Issue of a Fakeestinian state. This was a no win for the Pope moreover its really none of his concern. It would have been best if he avoided the entire issue. After a statement like that Israel really should just have asked him to stay away.
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How did this shmuck become pope anyways? Why is it that a man like John Hagee or Pat RObertson can't become the pope?
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How did this shmuck become pope anyways? Why is it that a man like John Hagee or Pat RObertson can't become the pope?
Pope is the leader of the Catholics but John Hagee and Pat Roberston are leaders in the Protestant community.
I don't want to explain the differences between Catholicism and the Protestant movement here because that will open another can of worms.
If you are interested in knowing you can simply google it or just send a PM to me.
There are many Zionist Catholics in the Catholic community but I don't think there are many of them especially amongst their ordained clergy.
Masterwolf and Italian Zionist are examples for Catholic Zionists
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I wish the holy father were not so politically correct. We need some courageous men to occupy the pontiff like Urban II in the crusades and Sixtus V during Lepanto.
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The RCC needs someone to lead them who loves Israel because I think by their leader going against Israel it's going to bring curses down upon the whole denomination. Not all the individual people, of course, because many of them are righteous, but all those who agree with this corrupt leader will be cursed.
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I wish the holy father were not so politically correct. We need some courageous men to occupy the pontiff like Urban II in the crusades and Sixtus V during Lepanto.
Pope is on a crusade once again against the Jewish people. During the crusades the church plundered the holy land and stole from the Jewish people. I just wish the Pope would keep out of Israel and the Jewish peoples business. The whole crusades and inquisition thing is hard to get over. Catholocism is not much different from Islam in the eyes of the Jewish people. More Jews died at the hands of Catholics than all of Islam put together.
The Pope has never apologized and his speech at Yad Hashem yesterday was not sufficient. The Church really owes the Jews a hearfelt apology and action {stop the prayers for Jewish conversion, etc.}
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What is insane is not that this pontiff is showing his anti-Semitic colors, but the fact that Jews are tolerating him. Why he is even permitted to set foot in the Holy Land after he pardoned the Nazi bishop is not something I can fathom.
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What is insane is not that this pontiff is showing his anti-Semitic colors, but the fact that Jews are tolerating him. Why he is even permitted to set foot in the Holy Land after he pardoned the Nazi bishop is not something I can fathom.
I agree with you. I am not sure if you are aware of this CF but "Rabbi" Arthur Schneir just came out with a statement about how everyone is wrong for criticizing the pope. This is the same Arthur Schneir who informed on Chaim Ben Pesach to the authorities during the heroic campaign to free Russian Jews. I hope hashem makes arthur schneir cease to exist.
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(http://www.lacoctelera.com/myfiles/jasoninternauta/benedicto%20XVI.jpg)
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Not one Catholic Priest or Pope protested or tried to stop the Holocaust, until it was too late.
No Way will I ever approve or sanction a Palestinian State!
I have to disagree. The Catholic Church had a hideous record in WW2 but there were righteous Catholic priests who were killed because they outright oppossed the Nazis or hid Jews.
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I don't think it is appropriate to call Ratzinger a nazi. Especially if you deduce this from his service in the vermacht and the Hitler youth. While this early history is shameful, it doesn't make him a nazi. In fact, I think Ratzinger did much more serious damage now that he is a pope, appeasing Islam and calling for the dismemberment of Israel.
I don't think highly of him to say the least, and really I'd rather he never came to visit Israel. The less contact we have with him, the better.
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Let's not get carried away with praising John Paul 'the Great'. Who can forget John Paul II's visit to a mosque in Syria, when he kissed a copy of the Koran (and in a sense, the backside of all Islam) and got nothing for his trouble. A man who faced-down the Soviets in his native Poland acted like a fool in dealing with the Muslims. Ratzinger's call for a Palestinian state is another attempt to placate the Muslims, just like his famed predecessor. And just like his predecessor, it will gain the Catholics no good will from the Muslims.
We're in an era when western civilization has adopted a policy of 'soft surrender', and the last American presidential election is a symptom, just like this 'cause-celeb' of a Palestinian state. Forcing a a Palestinian state on the Israelis is viewed as just one more attempt at appeasement to Islam. It will gain the West nothing, and Israel will be forced to pay the immediate price. Eventually, all western civilization will be facing a price.
As for what keeps me going, I look to a promise in Genesis, from One who never lies, although His timing is often awkward: "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you."
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I wish the holy father were not so politically correct. We need some courageous men to occupy the pontiff like Urban II in the crusades and Sixtus V during Lepanto.
it would be better for the pope to stick his nose out of our business.
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You should have known he was a traitor with the name "Benedict"! He should be facing war crimes right next to that piece of crap from Ohio!
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What is insane is not that this pontiff is showing his anti-Semitic colors, but the fact that Jews are tolerating him. Why he is even permitted to set foot in the Holy Land after he pardoned the Nazi bishop is not something I can fathom.
Thank You!! Why entertain someone that honestly does not have you best interests at hart. It's not antisemitism its the fact that the pope is politically correct to a fault. Policy like this will cause the R.C.C nothing but problems.
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Just like the one (Pope) of WWII was supporting the Nazis!
Vatican still ownes many apologies.
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I agree with you. I am not sure if you are aware of this CF but "Rabbi" Arthur Schneir just came out with a statement about how everyone is wrong for criticizing the pope. This is the same Arthur Schneir who informed on Chaim Ben Pesach to the authorities during the heroic campaign to free Russian Jews. I hope hashem makes arthur schneir cease to exist.
I can guarantee you that Arthur Schneir was on the KGB payroll. Heck, I would not be surprised if he is a blood relation to fellow Jewish anti-Semite Karl Marx. Yimach schmam vezichram.
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Just like the one (Pope) of WWII was supporting the Nazis!
Vatican still ownes many apologies.
Good point. I am certain that Pope RATzinger also hates the heroic Serbs and supports the Albanians, Bosnians, and Tamils.
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Just like the one (Pope) of WWII was supporting the Nazis!
Vatican still ownes many apologies.
Good point. I am certain that Pope RATzinger also hates the heroic Serbs and supports the Albanians, Bosnians, and Tamils.
RATzinger, hehehe, good one!
You mean BosniAKS or Bosnian MUSLIMS?!
Of course he hates the Serbs, although there are posibilities that he'll visit Serbia, too, justlike Israel.
Well, WWII Pope was directly and warmly Supporting Croatian Clerics during the WWII, there are even books about that.
I saw on TV comments about Pope's visit to Israel, one woman said "He's just representing a traffic problem, nothing more", she was so right!