Reigning Monarch: His Holiness Pope Francis
Reigning Family: The Spiritual Successors of St Peter
Status: The confines of Vatican City within Rome is all that remains of the Papal States which once covered much of central Italy and which the Popes of the Catholic Church ruled as supreme temporal as well as spiritual monarchs. The lands were confiscated during the unification of the Italian nation-state. The independence of the Vatican was recognized in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty. The Pope is titled, “Sovereign of the State of Vatican City” and is the last officially absolute monarch in the Christian world. Non-Christians and Protestants may view the Pope as a purely spiritual leader who happens to own a “country” the size of a postage stamp, but for Catholics the importance of the Pope has nothing to do with the amount of territory he actually rules. As the Supreme Pontiff and Vicar of Christ the Pope is, according to the traditional (no longer used) coronation oath, “Father of Princes and Kings, Ruler of the World, Vicar of our Savior Jesus Christ in earth”. The Pope and the Holy See are always listed first in seniority amongst the sovereigns and royal houses of Christendom.
Given the State of the Italian Republic, Europe in General, and Globsl Politics, I'd say the Papal States did a better job anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe death of that coronation oath, all by itself, does a fine job of illustrating the problems with ecumenism. :)
ReplyDeleteNo disagreement here, I'm a big fan of the Papal States, which were far from the way they are usually portrayed. The people were not unhappy or discontent. In fact when the republicans forced them to vote on joining their new nation-state many people refrained from voting while others wrote in the name of St Peter of Pio Nono.
ReplyDeleteI'm still sore about the loss of the coronation in general, just at the time when television would have allowed all people around the world to share in the spectacle. It's like everyone was cheated. As for ecuminism, I have no problem with so long as everyone is true to who they are and nothing is sacrificed needlessly (as seems to be the case). I'm all for friendly dialogue between denominations and religions but I am totally against changing things to please someone else -especially when it does no good anyway. I'm more inclined toward the ecumenical style of Pius XI -'come in slowly and keep your hands where I can see them!' Seriously though, I would like to see more done in regards to Catholic-Orthodox relations where there is far more common ground and basic agreement than Catholic-Protestant relations.
The big problem today is the big lie. The Big lie is that som epeopel have no Religion at all. Sine they have no Religion, they also have no doctrines or dogmas, and nothing to change. Those people consistently demand Christians change their beliefs or practices to be no offensive to them, and then try to tell us what is and is not right or wrong. And usually Christian leaders accommodate them.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a big lie because, if these people have no Religion and no beliefs to push on anyone else, then why is it they have a huge list of things they want me to say, do, and think? What’s the real difference between this and the tenets of a Religious Faith? It seems they just want conformity to theory beliefs and its really just a Religion by another name, using its “Not a religion” status and claims that its based on reason rather than admission that it’s a Philosophical ideology to sneak in and get their way. I dislike it as I don’t want to live in accordance to the dictates of Secular Humanism, but am forced to because of they so much as see a Bible they scream about their rights somehow being Violated.
True. I am always amazed when atheists attack the moral failings of Christians, I saw Bill Maher at it the other day, when they seem to be incapable of grasping the fact that their very conception of right and wrong comes from the very religion they denounce. Even if they just call religious leaders "liars" I have to ask, so what if they are? Why is it wrong to lie? You don't believe in moral absolutes or any sort of objective morality -so how can you say anything that religions or religious people do is wrong?
ReplyDeleteAnd at that point they usually make a joke or change the subject...
On the subject of atheists lying, the so-called "10,000" children that were raped by Catholic priests over 50 years, when investigated further turns out to be no more than 68 allegations of rape. The secular-militant-atheist lobby has blown the figures out of proportion by lumping every allegation of "abuse" into the umbrella term "rape", regardless of whether it is sexual abuse or not, and regardless of whether the cases even resulted in a trial, let alone conviction.
ReplyDeleteI am becoming frustrated with the militant atheists who seem make it their life's duty to see religion defamed and religious leaders convicted. The sad thing is, that it seems to be "accepted fact" in the West now that Catholic priests rape young children.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100053450/mass-rape-by-paedophile-catholic-priests-is-a-myth-says-secular-humanist-magazine/
They also appear to have forgotten that Jesus is the only one to have successfully lived as God intended. The rest of us have stumbled and fallen (though that should never stop us getting back up and keeping at it).
ReplyDeleteIt's also an attempt to obtain power. There's a lot of it now - the Catholic Church is so attacked because it isn't subordinate to a government (as governments can generally bring churches to heel, especially if they have choice of who gets to be bishop e.g. Church of England, Scotland, Sweden and so on). It gives these control freaks a one-fingered salute (or a two-fingered salute, to those who know its origins!), and that is one thing they really can't stand. It gets in the way of their theories.
Oh, and there's usually also the argument of impropriety in forcing your religion down someone's throat. Oddly enough, that's exactly what Jesus told us to do (though politely - make disciples of all the nations).
It's frustrating, but I know why they don't see things as we do - they just don't think like us. There's a lot more to this, and I'll be posting on it.