“Dear Brother Bishops, to defend life ‘we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, and refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might conform to this world’.”
Pope Benedict XVI to Bishops of Brazil
Radio Vatican reports: A social and political system that does not protect life and human dignity is based on a “false and illusory” right. Christians therefore, have the right – and duty – to use their electoral vote to defend the common good. This was Pope Benedict XVI message Thursday morning to a group of bishops from Northeast Brazil, who are in Rome on their ad Limina visit. The Pope also called for freedom of Catholic religious education in State schools and the defence of religious symbols in public life.
“Christ the Redeemer, with open arms, which dominates the Bay of Guanabara in Rio de Janeiro, is the truest symbol of the soul of Brazil”, said the Pope, adding that if the faith of the Brazilian people is “a sign of hope for the present and the future of the country”, there are however, “shadows” cast by forces that want to spread values that are morally unacceptable and offensive to the sacred nature of the human being. Thus pastors “have a grave duty to pronounce moral judgments” on political issues.
Even so, he said “any human right, be it political, economic or social that does not comprise the vehement defence of the right to life from conception to natural death is completely false and illusory (see Christifideles laici, 38). As part of efforts in favour of the weakest and most defenceless, who is more defenceless than an unborn child or a sick person in a vegetative or terminal state?”.
Pastors should remind all citizens of the right, which is also a duty, “to freely use their vote to promote the common good “. Pope Benedict reiterated that, God must “find a place in the public sphere, in the cultural, social, economic and particularly the political sphere.” “I join my voice to yours in an appeal on behalf of religious education, and more specifically the teaching of pluralistic and confessional religion in public state schools”.
“When political projects include aspects, overtly or covertly, such as the decriminalization of abortion or euthanasia, the democratic ideal – that is truly such when it acknowledges and safeguards the dignity of every human person – has betrayed its origins. Therefore, dear Brother Bishops, to defend life ‘we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, and refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might conform to this world’. “
Pope Benedict XVI also defended the presence of religious symbols in public life which, he asserted, is both “memory of man’s transcendence and his guarantee of respect.” These signs, the Pope concluded, take on a “special value” in Brazil, “where the Catholic religion is an integral part of its history”.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
“The Pope also called for freedom of Catholic religious education in State schools and the defence of religious symbols in public life.”
Would the burka fall into that category, I wonder?
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Yes.
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I would jolly well hope so, Toad. Besides, if you ban these things, it will only make them more attractive: http://tinyurl.com/3ywfgjf
As Montaigne might have said, if you want to get a gal to wear something, tell her it’s banned.
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I believe even Archbishop Lefebvre defended the right of Muslim parents to send their children to schools in accordance with their religious beliefs.
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“Today it is the secular society that increasingly considers forcing citizens to act against their consciences in the name of the proper functioning of a pluralistic secular state.”
I suspect the weasel word here is, ‘considers’. Teresa sees great plots and conspiracies round every corner. She can’t, or won’t see that anyone other than, in her case, Catholics, can possibly be anything other than evil and manipulative, ‘forcing’ (or at least ‘considering’ forcing) people to do things against their beliefs and interests.
Of course, many Muslims, and feminists and ‘gays’ to name but three, feel themselves just as oppressed as she does.
It’s boring to have to remind her, but when, for instance, the Catholics ran Spain under Franco -not so very long ago – everyone else was forced to act against their consciences in the name of the proper functioning of a monolithic, religious, state. As Saudi Arabia, to name but one of many, does right now.
So let’s cut ‘pluralism’ a little slack, eh?
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