To honor the renaming of the Plaza in front of Notre Dame Cathedral after Pope John Paul II several protest groups showed up complaining the honor was being bestowed upon, by others names, an assassin. Diogenes nailed these … hmmm … I’m searching for an appropriate word in Christian charity for these folks. Anyway, he nailed them:
In what way was Pope John Paul an assassin? Follow me closely here: Believing that human beings are endowed with free will, the Pope insisted that they are able to choose not to sin. Confronted with the fact that one particular sin exposes the sinner to, and transmits, a lethal illness, he repeated the teaching of the Church that the answer was, not to choose to sin safely, to but choose not to sin at all. Yet many people made the choice contrary to the one the Pope counseled, and died. Ergo, he murdered them.
Got it? Clear as mud to me. And then just to put some icing on that cake, he repeats a very accurate insight:
other institutions are held responsible for hardships resulting from obedience to their teachings; the Church is held responsible for hardships resulting from defiance of hers.
It’s amazing the lengths to which people will rewrite their understanding not only of history but the present to justify the life they choose to lead. Unfortunately for them, God does not depend on a human telling of history when the time comes for their Judgement. I’m sure someone will tell me that’s a threatening statement.
