{"id":33639,"date":"2013-01-21T05:30:34","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T11:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=33639"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:20:49","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:20:49","slug":"open-letter-to-pope-benedict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=33639","title":{"rendered":"Open Letter To Pope Benedict"},"content":{"rendered":"

To: His Holiness, Pope Benedict
\nFrom: Mitch Berg, Protestant
\nRe: None Of Your Business<\/p>\n

Your Holiness,<\/p>\n

With all respect due to your eminence in your church on spiritual issues, and to your predecessor’s stances in defense of freedom, I must confess that when I see you and your various ecclesiastical\u00a0bureaucrats\u00a0saying things like this<\/a>…:<\/p>\n

In an editorial aired yesterday on Vatican Radio, Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the press office of the Holy See, called \u201cinitiatives announced by the United States government in view of limiting and controlling the diffusion and use of arms \u2026 a step in the right direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cForty-seven religious leaders of various confessions and religions have issued a call to American politicians to limit firearms, which \u2018are making society pay an unacceptable price in terms of massacres and senseless deaths,\u2019\u201d Lombardi stated in his address. \u201cI\u2019m with them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and especially twaddle like this (I’ll add emphasis)…:<\/p>\n

While acknowledging \u201cthat arms, throughout the world, are also instruments for legitimate defense,\u201d and even admitting \u201cNo one can be under the illusion that limiting their number and use would be enough to impede horrendous massacres in the future<\/strong>,\u201d Lombardi nonetheless asserted \u201cit is necessary to repeat tirelessly our calls for disarmament<\/strong>, to oppose the production, trade, and smuggling of arms of all types.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf results are achieved, such as international conventions \u2026 all the better!\u201d he proclaimed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…it fills me with protestant pride.<\/p>\n

Your line, it seems, is “sorry about all the dead innocents who won’t \u00a0be able to defend themselves, but let’s hear it for those great guardians of the sanctity of human life, the U F****ng N”.<\/p>\n

Sorry, Fr. Lombardi. \u00a0We fought a war in this country at least in part to be free of the rule of monarchs, whether secular or ecclesiastical. \u00a0And when I read your church’s official word on self-defense (again, emphasis added)…:<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, individuals have a right and a duty to protect their own lives when in danger, and someone who \u2018defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow,\u2019\u201d CNS concedes, but offers a significant caveat. \u201cAccording to the catechism, the right to use firearms to \u2018repel aggressors\u2019 or render them harmless is specifically sanctioned for \u2018those who legitimately hold authority\u2019 and have been given the duty of protecting the community.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…it puts me in mind of the fact that\u00a0<\/em>functional representative democracy came much, much later to the Catholic than the Protestant world for a good reason.<\/p>\n

In other words, Fr. Lombardi, your assistance is not needed here. \u00a0Thanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To: His Holiness, Pope Benedict From: Mitch Berg, Protestant Re: None Of Your Business Your Holiness, With all respect due to your eminence in your church on spiritual issues, and to your predecessor’s stances in defense of freedom, I must confess that when I see you and your various ecclesiastical\u00a0bureaucrats\u00a0saying things like this…: In an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,22],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-33639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faiths-and-their-followers","category-victim-disarmament","tag-open-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33639"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33641,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33639\/revisions\/33641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}