When John Paul II traveled to Syria in 2000, he became the first pope ever to visit a mosque. He stood in Damascus's Umayyad Masjid, kissed the Qur'an and stated, "For all the times that Muslims and Christians have offended one another, we need to seek forgiveness from the Almighty and to offer each other forgiveness." It's no wonder many Muslims look back on John Paul's reign as the golden days of interfaith relations - and as Pope Benedict XVI's first few years as anything but. 

Today, more than a few U.S. Muslims wonder if Pope Benedict is simply tone deaf when it comes to interfaith sensitivity, or if he really does have it in for Islam. During a 2006 lecture at a German university, he quoted these lines from a 14th-century Christian Byzantine emperor: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."  

The lecture spurred outcry and protests, and though Benedict said that he was "very upset" that Muslims were offended, he never clearly apologized.

A visit to Turkey, where he prayed in a noted Istanbul mosque, seemed to cool things off ... until Easter Day of this year. At Rome's St. Peter's Basilica, the pope himself baptized Italian journalist Magdi Allam--an Egyptian Muslim who'd moved to Europe and become an outspoken critic of Islam.  

"The act of conversion itself was not offensive, but rather, the high-profile nature of how the conversion was carried out was insulting to Muslims," said Washington's Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) in a recent statement. "The fact that the conversion took place at St. Peter's Basilica, one of the most sacred locations for Christians, and on the holiest day of the Christian calendar carried a negative message of competition and superiority.  

Unfortunately, these recent events are neither constructive, nor conducive to effective interfaith dialogue." 

The Pope & American Muslims

from Crikey ….. 

World Youth Day: An unholy fiasco in the making 

Alex Mitchell writes: 

The Catholic Church’s World Youth Day (WYD) which Sydney is hosting in July has been sold to the general public on the basis that it will bring a massive boost to the local economy.  

Heard it before? Much the same argument was used to persuade Sydneysiders to accept the monstrous security "lockdown" and mass disruption caused by the APEC summit attended by President George Bush and 20 other world leaders, emperors and dictators last September.

The Iemma Government and WYD organisers are spruiking up the festival and the visit by Pope Benedict XVI and trying to allay public concern about the closure of roads (300 of them across the city!), the cancellation of buses, trains and ferries and the massive taxpayer subsidy running into tens of millions of dollars.  

One Crikey subscriber phoned CountryLink recently to make a rail booking from Canberra to Sydney during the holy event and was told the services had been suspended for its duration.  

WYD communications director Jim Hanna, a former AAP political correspondent, still believes that the event from July 14 to 20 will attract 125,000 overseas pilgrims.  

“We are in regular contact with the bishops’ conferences in most of the main countries (and) we check the numbers they give us all the time,” he told The Oz. “What they’re telling us at the moment is that number of 125,000 is about right.”  

Oh really? Well, what the Immigration Department is telling Crikey is something quite different. Only 17,000 visas have been issued so far to overseas attendees. Of course, there could be a late rush – there usually is – and the numbers may double or even treble. But that will still be well below the forecasts of Cardinal George Pell and Premier Morris Iemma. And that means the taxpayers will be left holding a huge bill for yet another event fiasco.  

What’s slashing the number of potential visitors is the strong Aussie dollar, the rising cost of air fares and the vast distance overseas pilgrims need to travel to reach Sydney from the strongholds of Catholicism in Europe, South America and North America.  

The estimated cost of the week-long event is $150 million and rising. The biggest single taxpayer-funded contribution is $41 million to the Australian Jockey Club for the use of Randwick racecourse for a full papal mass and for renovations to Warwick Farm.  

This outrageous payment could have been avoided if the mass had been held at Olympic Park, the site of the 2000 Olympics at Homebush, as it was originally intended.  

But the Catholic elders stiff-armed the Iemma Government which caved in and switched the venue to the inappropriate racetrack. Taxpayers are now footing the bill for that craven stupidity.  

Pope Benedict, who has arrived in the US to meet President Bush and address the United Nations, has said he is “deeply ashamed” over the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and has vowed to stop pedophiles becoming priests.  

Let’s hope the German-born Joseph Ratzinger stiffens his message by the time he reaches Sydney by vowing to stop priests becoming pedophiles. Heaven knows, we desperately need some positives out of this fiasco-in-the-making.

"Blessed week ever!" The Daily Show's Jon Stewart reports on the Pope's visit. Watch for President Bush doing his best Keanu Reeves impression at the end. 

Blessed Week Ever

Gary Corseri

Dissident Voice,

April 26th, 2008 

 

When the Pope came to AmericaHe wore his white, brocaded gown.

He wore a white yarmulke, too.

(Looked like a yarmulke–I wonder what it is?)

He carried a scepter to let us know

He ruled the Earth’s dominions. 

 

When the Pope came to America,

He met the war-criminal BushOn a blood-stained red carpet.

He didn’t arrest the war-criminal

In the name of the People.

He didn’t arrest the war-criminal

In the name of Christ.

He gave the war criminal

A private audience

And he blessed him

And he let him kiss his ring.  

 

Then he kissed the war-criminal’s ass

And they sang “Ave, Maria” together.

He said, “I am the Vicar of Christ on Earth

But you are the mightiest some-bitch in the world.

Christ said, ‘Render unto Caesar

The things that are Caesar’s,

”So I render unto you

Allegiance, Obedience, subservience—

So long as you don’t tax what we own.

And when it comes to your various war crimes–

I’ll turn the other cheek.” 

 

Then the Pope went to the National Cathedral

Where he expressly did not

Ask good Catholics not to fight in illegal wars.

And when he went to Yankee Stadium,

The house that Ruth built

(No, not the Bible’s Ruth!),

He expressly did not say:

“Stop paying taxes to an illegal government

That robs from the poor to give to the rich.

”But, in spite of him not saying that,

And a hundred things like that,

60,000 Catholics waved their Bibles

And swore never to have an abortion—

Not even in the event of rape—

Because the life of an embryoIs more precious than rubies,

And far more precious than

The life of a mother

(Or, the life of a babyStarving in Africa or wherever).

Because it’s more important to sell corn crops

For American SUV’s than for African babies, etc., to live. 

 

The Pope didn’t talk politics

But he did say he was sorry

For all those horny Catholic priests

Getting it on with boys and girls.

Holy Mother of God!

What a 2-billion-dollar mess

That turned out to be! 

 

The Pope said nothing about women being ordained

And the nuns wept with joy.

He said nothing about cheap toys from China

Painted with lead, nor about workers in China

Having nothing better to do

Than dab lead paint on American toys,

Nor about outsourced jobs, nor about a capitalist system

150 years out of joint; nor did he say anything about

Healthcare, lousy schools, and 7,000 different versions

Of Law & Order propagating themselves on TV

Like so many spirochetes. 

 

The Pope said nothing about Oprah Winfrey being

The world’s biggest bore,

Donald Trump being it’s biggest yokel-egomaniac,

Nor Rupert Murdoch being Rupert Murdoch.

He didn’t say a prayer for dead Iraqis.

He went to Ground Zero of the World Trade Center,

But he didn’t say a word about Ground Zero, Hiroshima.

Every time he didn’t say something—

The crowd went wild. 

 

It was heart-warming to see a shepherd so beloved by his flock.

I thought of Jesus among the lepers,

Mother Theresa in the black hole of Calcutta,

Martin Luther King with the garbage-workers of Memphis,

Oscar Romero with the peasants of El Salvador,

Barefoot St. Francis embracing the moon.

But somehow the similes didn’t fit. 

 

* Gary will be performing his work at the Yippie Museum Cafe in Greenwich Village, New York on May Day, 2008. 

Gary Corseri has published/posted poems, articles, fiction and dramas at DissidentVoice, New York Times, Village Voice, CommonDreams, CounterPunch, Cyrano'sJournal, AtlanticFreePress and hundreds of other venues. His books include Manifestations (edited) and A Fine Excess. He is the Arts Coordinator of the "Building a New World" conference in Radford, VA, May 22-May 26 and can be contacted at gary_corseri@comcast.net. Read other articles by Gary.

I was pleased to find my poem, "When the Pope Came to America" (with full accreditation, no less!) at your site. I've been exploring your site, and I like it very much. I'll add it to my Favourites - and spread the word. I was lucky to spend 6 months in "The Lucky Country" during my 29th-30th years. I have followed the news in the 3 decades since; and while you may be less lucky than before, and the spirit of "matesmanship" may be tarnishing, I see by your site and elsewhere that the American Disease has not done you in, and that principled resistance, independence and sharp inquiry remain hallmarks of Aussie character. Thank you for the splendid work you do. 

Museum refuses to remove crucified frog sculpture

An art museum in northern Italy said today it will continue displaying a sculpture portraying a green frog nailed to a cross that has angered Pope Benedict XVI and local officials.

The board of the foundation of the Museion in the city of Bolzano voted to keep the work by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger, the museum said in a statement.

Earlier in August the pope had written a letter to Franz Pahl, the president of the Trentino-Alto Adige region that includes Bolzano, denouncing the sculpture.

It "has offended the religious feelings of many people who consider the cross a symbol of God's love and of our redemption," Pahl quoted the pope as writing in the letter.

Pahl himself has long opposed the display of "Zuerst die Fuesse" ("First the Feet" in German), even staging a hunger strike this summer and saying he would not seek re-election unless it was removed.

--------------------------

While the Pope did praise the world's worst terrorist (see toon above), it appears some crazy artist crucified a frog to the altar of bad taste... That's what most artist do these days. Crucify stuff... including beauty. On this site, daily, we crucify tins of GM bake beans, guns of all sorts, princes (with faint praise), but especially president Bushit, as well as the pope himself. No harm intended except shake our spiritual and belief grooves out of their comfort zone to foster our curiosity... By denouncing the sculpture, the Pope showed he had no frog legs to stand on. Sorry about the bad pun... that's what artists do when they run out of ideas...

From Maureen Dowd NYT

...

It was only when the sanctity of the confessional was breached that an archbishop in Wisconsin (who later had to resign when it turned out he used church money to pay off a male lover) wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger at the Vatican to request that Father Murphy be defrocked.

The cardinal did not answer. The archbishop wrote to a different Vatican official, but Father Murphy appealed to Cardinal Ratzinger for leniency and got it, partly because of the church’s statute of limitations. Since when does sin have a statute of limitations?

The pope is in too deep. He has proved himself anything but infallible. And now he claims he was uninformed on the matter of an infamous German pedophile priest. A spokesman for the Munich archdiocese said on Friday that Ratzinger, running the diocese three decades ago, would not have read the memo sent to him about Father Peter Hullermann’s getting cycled back into work with children because between 700 to 1,000 memos go to the archbishop each year.

Let’s see. That’s two or three memos a day. And Ratzinger was renowned at the Vatican for poring through voluminous, recondite theological treatises.

Because he did not defrock the demented Father Murphy, it’s time to bring in the frocks.

Pope Benedict has continued the church’s ban on female priests and is adamant against priests’ having wives. He has started two investigations of American nuns to check on their “quality of life” — code for seeing if they’ve grown too independent. As a cardinal he wrote a Vatican document urging women to be submissive partners and not take on adversarial roles toward men.

see toon at top and here as well... or here... or...