Vatican City (AsiaNews) – “Just as so many times I have cried with the Iraqi people, on this occasion I rejoiced with them”: the Iraqi football team’s victory in the Asian Cup was unusually evoked today by Benedict XVI before he turned his attention once again to expressing his closeness to the war wracked nation. The Pope’s congratulations for a football event came at the end of his general audience, when Benedict XVI spoke of “the popular explosion of joy” across the country “in the face of this historic success for Iraq, for the first time football champions of Asia”. It was an “enthusiasm that spilled over onto Iraq's streets”, and “This experience of joyful sharing reveals the desire of a people to have a normal and serene life”. “It is my hope that this event, with everyone's support, may contribute to a future in Iraq of real peace in liberty and mutual respect. Congratulations!”
It feels good to know the Pope thinks of the Iraqi people, their suffering and moments of joy. It also helps that the German people are into soccer :-)
4 comments:
Hi Fay,
The next Pope should be Chinese.
That would be a stroke of genius by the Vatican, because according to this article, there are 10,000 new Christians in China every day and by the middle of the century, there
will be 200 million Christians in
China.
Wow, that's amazing. And I don't think Fay, the Chinese government will be able to hinder the process - if the Roman Empire couldn't stop
Christianity from spreading, the Communist Chinese won't be able to either. No religion flourishes better under persecution than Christianity.
A Chinese Pope? I don't know about that.
I hope the next Pope would be either African or South American.
Either way, they need some multi-culturism at the Vatican.
Hi Fay,
You're absolutely right.
The Vatican needs to expand
from the European good ol' boys
Eurocentric network to embrace more of a world view. An African pope
would probably make the most sense,
as Africa needs some good news.
Think of Iraq, and just ponder how
much worse things were in Rwanda and Darfur. And Zimbabwe ain't exactly a picnic. And Southern Sudan. And Somalia. Just think how many wars are going on in Africa at
this moment.
So, an African Pope could be a tremendous unifying figure. Can you imagine the audiences he would draw?
Fay, there's a good documentary circulating on A&E or maybe it's The History Channel about the Garden of Eden. You know the idea of the apple being the forbidden fruit, didn't come in to existence until 500 AD, because the Latin word for evil is the same as for apple.
So, if there ever was a forbidden fruit, it was more likely a fig (Adam and Eve wore fig leaves, so figs would make a lot of sense) or
a pomegranate, since those were plentiful in the Middle East.
And interestingly about Pomegranates, in Greek mythology,
Hades the god of the Underworld fell in love with Persephone, who was the daughter of Demeter, the Earth goddess. So Hades kidnapped
Persephone and took her to his Underworld palace.
Well Demeter was so devastated, that she stopped caring and the Earth went to pieces... crops wouldn't grow, etc.
So, Zeus the King of gods wanted to mend things, and told Hades to send Persephone back, as long as she didn't eat anything - since eating anything in the Underworld, the land of the dead, would mean you were of the dead yourself.
Unfortunately, Persephone ate some pomegranate seeds - but in the end Zeus compromised, and Persephone had to spend a certain number of months in the Underworld each year.
And those months when she was away, were the months that nothing grew on the Earth or the season known as winter. So, that's how we got winter, LOL.
And pomegranates, well the Greek myth illustrates there was already a connection between them and the darkside, even before the Hebrews incorporated the story of Adam and Eve in to the Bible.
I have to say pomegranate juice is really delicious. LOL.
MG,
I don't know about the apple story since in Aramaic the words for Satan and apple are way different and I can't see how the words confused them when they wrote the bible.
They say pomegranate don't grow in Heaven? I never was able to find pomegranate in Sydney; so I'm guessing Sydney is Heaven on earth!!!
As for the Pope, I agree the EuroPope selection needs to be altered. We need new blood in our church. As you said, Africa needs a unifying figure and an African Pope would help them see the best in themselves. At least we hope so.
Post a Comment