Saturday, September 16, 2006
Welcome back to Civilization, Benedict!
Since I've kicked Benedict XVI up one side and down the other for his shameful moral neutrality between Israel and Hezbollah, I need to praise him now that he has finally come to his senses. Especially because his senses appear to be responding to the irreplaceable Fallaci; and especially because he is doing exactly what I hoped he would do: aligning Rome and Byzantium against Mohammed by quoting a Byzantine emperor.
A passage from Fallaci's The Force of Reason:
Last August I was received in private audience by Ratzinger. A Pope who loves my work since he read 'Letter to a Child Never Born' and whom I deeply respect since I read his intelligent books. Morover, with whom I happen to agree in many occasions. For example, when he writes that the West has developed a sort of hatred toward itself. That it no longer loves itself, that it has lost its spirituality and risks to lose its identity too. ... This is also why I state that, in selling itself to theocratic Islam, secularism has missed the most important appointment offered to it by History.
And in doing so it has opened a void, an abyss, that only spirituality can fill. It is also why in the Church of today I see an unexpected partner, an unexpected ally.... Unless, of course, the Church too misses its appointment with History. Something I don't foresee, though. And I don't becuse, in reaction to the materialistic ideologies which have characterized the century we just left, the century ahead seems to me marked by an inevitable nostalgia or irresistible need of religiousness.
In other words, you can't replace an evil religion with an empty theory like democracy. You have to replace it with a good religion, and the Pope is best positioned to start such a replacement.
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Later: Unfortunately, the Vatican is backing off in the face of violence by Mohammedan savages, issuing "sincere regrets" that Mohammedans have "misinterpreted" Ratzinger's remarks.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
The CORRECT response is "I said you're violent savages. Thanks for proving my point so quickly and enthusiastically!" ¶ 8:54 AM
A passage from Fallaci's The Force of Reason:
Last August I was received in private audience by Ratzinger. A Pope who loves my work since he read 'Letter to a Child Never Born' and whom I deeply respect since I read his intelligent books. Morover, with whom I happen to agree in many occasions. For example, when he writes that the West has developed a sort of hatred toward itself. That it no longer loves itself, that it has lost its spirituality and risks to lose its identity too. ... This is also why I state that, in selling itself to theocratic Islam, secularism has missed the most important appointment offered to it by History.
And in doing so it has opened a void, an abyss, that only spirituality can fill. It is also why in the Church of today I see an unexpected partner, an unexpected ally.... Unless, of course, the Church too misses its appointment with History. Something I don't foresee, though. And I don't becuse, in reaction to the materialistic ideologies which have characterized the century we just left, the century ahead seems to me marked by an inevitable nostalgia or irresistible need of religiousness.
In other words, you can't replace an evil religion with an empty theory like democracy. You have to replace it with a good religion, and the Pope is best positioned to start such a replacement.
-----
Later: Unfortunately, the Vatican is backing off in the face of violence by Mohammedan savages, issuing "sincere regrets" that Mohammedans have "misinterpreted" Ratzinger's remarks.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
The CORRECT response is "I said you're violent savages. Thanks for proving my point so quickly and enthusiastically!" ¶ 8:54 AM
