The Pope, on his visit to Turkey, wrapped things up by praying in the direction of Mecca, like Muslims do.
I can't tell you how disturbing this is.
This action of the pope is disturbing, disgusting, cowardly, and drags the First Commandment right through the mud.
And to think that the pope had a golden opportunity to proclaim Christ on his visit to Turkey in a way that no one else would have been allowed to do. And he chooses instead to do this. Terrible.
This is just as bad as when John Paul II kissed the Koran. Seems the pontiffs have become universalist sell-outs.
HT: Texas Hold'em Blogger
Friday, December 01, 2006
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2 comments:
Would the direction that the Pope faced when praying not be adiaphora?? As I read the article, I saw nothing that said that he prayed in any way that would suggest apostacy. Would anyone confuse the pope - who had just celebrated the mass and dedicated a statue to John 23 - with a Muslim because of the direction he faced during prayer?
And is it really all that different than the tradition of having east-facing altars in our churches (which are all West of Jerusalem and, coicidentally, Mecca)?
I don't mean to be argumentative, I just didn't see at as something that warrents the very serious charge of apostacy.
After reading some more about this, I should probably back off a bit.
It seems the prayer took place in a mosque-slash-church, and that it may be that his prayer facing east was not intended to be an endorsement of Islam (as I had suggested). I light of the previous pontiff's kissing of the Koran, you can see why one would think so, however.
But intentions aside, I think he should have known better than to give the impression of unity where none exists. So, at best this is an issue of a poor witness.
I've also contrasted this to situation to Daniel, who was told to pray to a false god, and who refused. Even if, some might argue, he had bowed before it and "meant" he was praying to the true, omnipresent God - it would still be a serious infraction - because to all appearances he was indeed praying to the idol. Context matters!
So can we expect a "clarification" from the Vatican? I won't hold my breath. Even if he wasn't specifically "praying toward Mecca", it seems it suits his purposes to let the "misperception" persist.
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