Yankee Doodle
From Kristos Vocabulary Booster
English
Noun
- a patriotic song popular with the Americans in their Revolutionary War
External Link
Yankee Doodle (http://www.contemplator.com/america/ydoodle.html)
Pope John Paul II's resistance to the invasion of Iraq
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April 2 2005.
After 26 dramatic years of pontificate, His Holiness John Paul II died today.
His last years were characterized by a courageous and principled opposition ---
on religious, moral, and political grounds ---
to the US led war on Iraq and its ideological foundations.
The latter consisted in justifying the "war on terrorism", as a legitimate response to the so-called
"Clash of Civilizations", between the West predominantly Christian on the one hand the Muslim
world on the other hand.
Following his death, we now see many world leaders --- starting with George W. Bush ---
who maliciously attempted to thwart Pope John Paul's antiwar stance,
pouring gallons of crocodile tears over the TV cameras.
However, this media propaganda cannot overshadow the fact that John Paul II’s last big battle was
against the Bush administration's “preemptive war” doctrine.
The Pontiff and his closest collaborators resisted an unprecedented assault by the men of the would
be new roman emperor on the Potomac and told directly Bush and his minions that their war was an
“unjust war.”
Needless to say, Pope John Paul II's rejection of America's military agenda contributed immensely
to weakening the Pentagon's propaganda campaign.
The issue of his succession in the Vatican is, therefore, a matter of paramount importance for
Catholics and non-Catholics.
Will John Paul's principled stance prevail or will his successor succumb to the political pressures
of the Bush administration?
What will be criteria for selecting his successor?
Will the new Pope be chosen as a result of US pressures?
Or will the successor of John Paul II follow and broaden his moral strategy of defending humanity
from the imperial predators?
Will the successor accept the proposal to become the “chaplain of the new world order” that,
reportedly, Bush senior made unsuccessfully to the Pope during the first Gulf war?
Or will he draw --- from the root of Christianity and the experience of the Church ---
the language and the strategy to evoke the resistance of the quasi totality of the peoples of the
world to the new US led empire?
Will he be an instrumentum regni or an instrumentum Christi?
The world has entered now into a critical and momentous period filled with existential dangers of
apocalyptic proportions;
but, at the same time, we have the possibility to create a concrete alternative to this descent into
the Inferno.
In this context, and as a contribution to clarifying what is at stake, we bring to the attention of
Global Research readers, a private memorandum written in April 2003, by someone apparently
familiar with the “geo-religious” situation in the Vatican, at the time of the war against Iraq.
The memorandum was written originally in Italian and was made available for private circulation
among political and religious leaders including high ranking members of the clergy inside the
Vatican.
The memorandum was specifically addressed to the leadership of the Vatican ,
which was under tremendous pressure from Washington .
The Bush administration's goal was to enlist Pope Paul II and the Vatican Curia,
as key supporters of the US-led “crusade.”
The Vatican leadership refused to accept the role Washington wanted it to play in the
intended religious war.
The Pope not only rejected the war but did everything possible to prevent it.
The Pope had stated that the war on Iraq would be a defeat for humanity.
He sent one of the most important prelates of the Vatican , Cardinal Pio Laghi
( former Pro Nuncio in Washington and a friend of the Bush family)
on a special mission to President Bush carrying a letter signed by the Pope,
stating that this was a truly "unjust war".
The White House had its spokesman Ari Fleischer declare in a provocative way, while the meeting
and negotiations were still ongoing, that Bush would not be influenced by the Pope's appeals.
In fact, every major Cardinal in the Vatican intervened explicitly to denounce the war,
even if this was never reported adequately by the US media.
The Vatican’s “Foreign Minister” Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran stated that the war would be
"a crime against the peace" and a “war of aggression.”
Archbishop Renato Martino, who had for many years been the Vatican's ambassador to the UN,
labeled the threatened US intervention as
“a crime against peace that cries out for vengeance before God.”
Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity,
and former Archbishop of Denver and the highest-ranking U. S. Bishop in Rome ,
denounced the U.S. intervention as morally unjustified and a further alarming example
of increased global use of violent force.
The Pope, on whose agony and death George W. Bush is shedding crocodile tears,
did not relent even after the war had started.
After the assault was announced, John Paul II said:
"When war, as in these days in Iraq, threatens the fate of humanity,
it is ever more urgent to proclaim, with a strong and decisive voice,
that only peace is the road to follow to construct a more just and united society,"
This resistance from the Vatican provoked the fury of the Administration and the Neocons.
Condoleeza Rice was sent to Rome, the key “Catholic” neo conservative,
Michael Novak (the author of the so-called “theology of capitalism”)
was sent as a representative of the US President to teach the Pope and the Cardinals
the new theological foundations that made the attack on Iraq a “just war.”
As a guest of James Nicholson, the then US ambassador to the Vatican
(and since Dec 9 2004 Secretary of Veterans Affairs),
Novak’s presence and lecturing attitude was forced on the Vatican inner circle.
It was a continuous provocation, and a triumph of theological ignorance,
that the Vatican accepted hoping that a dialogue with the “theologian of Bush”
could have brought some results.
Novak, the Cardinals thought, was “unable to listen.”
Novak moving always under the personal protection of Ambassador Nicholson
and of the US ambassador in Italy , Mel Sembler
accused the Cardinals of the Curia of encouraging the Pope’s hostility to the war.
Novak’s position was that the “old” theological doctrine concerning “just war”
was to be revised radically in order to accommodate the war on Iraq and the
theory of “preventive war”.
Why?
Because --- Novak argued --- first, we live now in a period of “asymmetrical warfare” and,
second, because the US intelligence has information about the weapons secretly owned by
Iraq that the Vatican does not have.
At the same time, the US is not at liberty to reveal this information.
In other words, Novak and his sponsors lied directly in the face of the Vatican leadership.
On Feb 9 2003 , Novak was received by the Vatican ’s Secretary of State
(the Nr. 2 after the Pope) Angelo Sodano
as well as by Msgr. Tauran and Msgr. Martino.
On the 12th, Nicholson and Sambler presented Novak in a conference hosted by the head of
Rome ’s Black Nobility, Princesses Elvina Pallavicini in her Palace.
It was the Princess, a protector of the most rightwing extreme pseudo catholic groups,
that hosted in 1977 the famous conference with the fundamentalist bishop Marcel Lefebvre
who launched an open attack against the then Pope Paul VI who was responsible of promoting
diplomatic, economic and social initiatives that the US neo-conservatives of that time, did not like.
It is interesting to re read now --- while the Pope is dying --- the speech delivered there by
Ambassador Nicholson, who was already engaged at that time, in creating what many call a
“fifth column” inside the Vatican to weaken the resistance to the imperial policy of Washington
and to promote more docile prelates.
The speech was trying to promote George W Bush as a religious leader
able to challenge the Vatican ’s old “prejudices” concerning war and peace.
The speech and the connected propagandistic offensive did not achieve the goal of
forcing Pope John Paul II to justify a war that he has declared unjust until the end.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From the Ambassador Nicholson's Remarks to the Principessa Pallavicini Conference ---
Palazzo Pallavicini, Rome February 12, 2003 :
.........Just this week, our two bilateral Embassies hosted here in Rome a series of meetings
with moral philosopher Michael Novak.
Novak eloquently analyzed how traditional just war theory ought to be applied to the new
phenomenon of asymmetrical warfare ---
of international terrorists striking "out of the clear blue sky" at the heart of civilization.
September 11 proved that many of the ad bellum considerations of just war theory need to
be rethought --- terror cells, beholden to no nation-state, strike without warning and with
devastating consequences for thousands of innocents.
At the same time, rogue states develop weapons that can kill tens of thousands........."
Sometimes, therefore, a military response is not only justifiable but also a moral obligation
when society is confronted with evils of sufficient magnitude.
This is basically the challenge confronting President Bush and the rest of the free world.
As a leading voice for peace and security, the United States must seek to define a response to
that evil, and one that achieves the result we all seek – a foundation for genuine peace........."
As Secretary Powell told the Security Council February 5, the nexus of international terrorism
and weapons of mass destruction poses an unacceptable risk that could kill many thousands
of our people.
This is a life issue that requires a resolute and united response.
It presents us with a new paradigm in which to consider the traditional theories of just war.
In our view, the moral response is the one that will help achieve the Pope's four pillars of peace,
end the suffering of the Iraqi people, and ensure the safety and dignity of human beings
throughout the world.
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There's a lot more.
Use this link to read more :
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/VAT504A.html
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