Cardinal feels betrayed

Cardinal Pio Laghi visited Bush at the White House on March 5, 2003, to relay the pope's position that dialogue, not arms, should be used to resolve the crisis over Iraq, which the United States accused of harboring weapons of mass destruction.

"When I went to Washington as the pope's envoy just before the outbreak of the war in Iraq, he (Bush) told me: `Don't worry, your eminence. We'll be quick and do well in Iraq,'" Laghi told Italian Catholic TV station Telepace, which was broadcasting the pontiff's annual address to diplomats.

When the United States went to war in Iraq, Laghi called the attack on Baghdad "tragic and unacceptable."

"Unfortunately, the facts have demonstrated afterward that things took a different course — not rapid and not favorable," the prelate told Telepace. "Bush was wrong."

Yahoo article

As you know, however, Cardinal, it's the first time in his life.

You're all idiots. And hypocrites.

Pope John Paul II, who opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the Bush administration's policy of preventive war, criticized on Monday the "arrogance of power," which he said should be countered with reason and dialogue.

WaPo article

Don't worry, Cardinal. His Holiness the Pope and His Slowliness the Dope can still agree on some things.

[The Pope] listed first his opposition to abortion, artificially assisted procreation, human embryonic stem cell research and cloning, calling anything that "violates the integrity and dignity of the embryo . . . ethically inadmissible." He also spoke out indirectly against gay marriage, saying that the family was threatened by laws that "challenge its natural structure" as a union of a man and a woman.

[...]

"Recourse to arms and violence has not only led to incalculable material damage, but also fomented hatred and increased the causes of tension," the pope said. "The arrogance of power must be countered with reason, force with dialogue, pointed weapons with outstretched hands, evil with good."

The quest for peace was one of four challenges the 84-year-old leader of the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics said faced the world this year.

Uh-huh. Like the Catholic Church has ever been anti-war. Like they've never "fomented hatred and increased the causes of tension" in the world. Like they've never participated in holy wars or inquisitions and torture. Like they don't wield power like a racist copper.

Besides, all those "counters" are being met. One in the right hand, the other in the left. That's how they pretend to justify the arrogance of power. Just like the holy church.

The pope also called for a "vast moral mobilization of public opinion" to fight hunger and urged political leaders in wealthy countries to be particularly responsive. In addition to his plea for peace, he spoke out for individual freedom and put religious liberty "at the very heart" of it.

Individual freedom with exceptions (see abortion, artificially assisted procreation, and gay marrriage above).

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.