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Photo: The Swiss Guards at the Vatican- an independent state within the city of Rome |
Pope Benedict was out and about this morning for the Wednesday audience with his usual smile and carefree ness in spite that the prestigious university in Rome, (though after the recent happenings it can hardly be still described as such), with a petition signed sealed and delivered by students and 67 professors mainly from the faculty of Science have objected that the Pope sets foot inside the university, let alone inaugurate the academic year with a speech, as he was asked to do. Until today, the Pope had no intentions of not going but when it became clear that there were tomatoes, apples, oranges and no doubt rotten eggs and a banger or two waiting to greet him he took a step backwards; which as far as I can see is a wise decision, not because the Pope is afraid of the tomatoes and rotten eggs- my personal opinion is that he couldn’t care less what comes across his path- but because someone would certainly be injured or worse. And of course there would be great cries that reach the skies to claim that it was the Pope’s entire fault.
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| Saint Peter-The First Pope |
It’s not simply a question of whether you agree with the Pope or not, share the same faith or are a complete atheist. I agree when he says it’s murder if you have an abortion, since I can’t think what else to call it, but I think it’s absurd to say the use of contraception is sinful or not allow people who divorce to remarry. Nor is it a matter of whether you believe that the Pope is the direct successor of Saint Peter whose power was bestowed upon him directly by Christ and consequently that same power has been transmitted without interruption to the present Pope, nor does it matter if you believe that Christ was the Son of God or merely attribute the walking on waters a prerogative of our present leader of the opposition, Berlusconi- No, none of this matters simply because it is a question of allowing someone, another human being, without any special privileges, to have his or her say. And to deny that to any individual, which appertains to the human race is denying freedom of speech which is a sacred birthright bestowed to each and every individual, and if a society allows a group of people to repress that right then that society is no longer civilized.
I’ve noticed that of late the number of Barbarians is forever increasing and the first on my list are those individuals who because they are intellectually inferior to others, in other words they are totally ignorant, use force to prevent others from having a voice of their own.
I wonder why those professors and students have never gagged Osama bin Laden- Now there’s a guy who when he speaks the whole world stops to listen- How far down into the gutter do some people really want me to crawl???
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Rome-The Fountain of Trevi (detail) |
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