Benedict Vying With God?
No. Tell me they're kidding. It's an unpractical joke. Not that Pope Benedict has a cat, but that the Vatican is engaging in very peculiar behaviours more befitting a demagogic regime than a somberly worshipful congregation of high-placed church officials within the Roman Catholic Church. This has got to be some kind of evil conspiracy to put the Vatican, the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Benedict in a derisory light of manipulating tender minds.Mindful of the manner in which Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, whose antics come more quickly to mind as an example - have published elementary- and secondary-school textbooks schooling Palestinian children in the arcane tribal adherence to Islam through the lens of sacrifice as duty in preparing the lambs to become battering rams ready to slaughter Islam's enemies, one has to remind oneself that the similarities are merely fancied.
For nowhere does Chico the cat, companion to Pope Benedict elect through the publishing of his memoirs of his life with the Pope seek to convince his young readers that they must prove their love of God and allegiance to the Pope by committing themselves to the glory of gladiatorial oblivion. The purpose is quite otherwise; to impress upon impressionable young minds the extraordinariness of the Holy Father.
This is an authorized biography meant for a child readership with a special message for the young: "Dear Children, here you will find a biography that is different to others because it is told by a cat and it is not every day a cat can consider the Holy Father his friend and sit down to write his life story", according to the foreword written by Monsignor Georg Ganswein, the Pope's personal secretary.
Chico and Joseph - a Cat Recounts the Life of Pope Benedict XVI, a 44-page book as told by Chico who first encountered Pope Benedict in Germany when he was but Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is replete with descriptions of Chico's life with his master. Chico is nine years of age, roughly the age of his readers, but unlike the children who will read the book, Chico lives in the Papal apartments in Vatican City and goes on vacation with his master.
How quaint; introducing already-indoctrinated children to a personage whom they can identify with and believe - a cat. Some pussy cats have travelled to London to see the Queen, but this one actually lives full-time with the Pope. How's that for credibility? We'll take our Pope over your Queen any old day, so there.
It's long been seen as appropriate for children raised in the Roman Catholic tradition to be given books to introduce them to fables of God's existence and loving purpose, along with helpfully worshipful tales of Christ, the Chosen One. The Church is now going one better and branching out to introduce whom, the successor to both? Aggrandizement of self as to the Popehood born?
First there was the Ineffable Being, then came the hallowed Messenger the adored Son of God yet son-of-man; now exists the Holy Authority, he who speaks in God's name, interpreting the Holy Scriptures as God would have them done. The cult of God-worship in peculiar competition with the mind-befouling precepts of Islamists.
From moral certitude to moral incompetence and virtual compromised collapse.
On the other hand, and to be entirely fair, that is one talented cat.
Labels: Religion
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, October 04, 2007
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