on Jan 11th, 2008New Found Respect for The Catholic Church
I was browsing through Wikipedia.org and I chanced upon a page on the Great Jubilee.
What caught my attention was the “Day of Forgiveness” - Pope John Paul II and other cardinals begged forgiveness from God for the sins committed by members of the Church, and particularly sins committed in the name of the Church.
Although I know that Catholics and Christians are generally peace loving people, I’ve always had the impression that most of them put themselves on a pedestal and it makes them look very hypocritical. Not to boast or anything, but I am definitely a very compassionate and forgiving person, and reading about “Day of Forgiveness”, I’m going to give one more reason why the Catholic church is better than Christianity.
Summary:
During the Great Jubilee, Pope John Paul II issued an apology for all the past sins of the Roman Catholic Church, dividing the sins into seven categories. Amongst general sins, sins in service of the truth, sins against Christian unity, sins against Jews, sins against respect of love, peace and culture, and sins against human rights, he also apologized for sins against the dignity of women and minorities.
It’s this sincere, non-political, non-hypocritical plea for forgiveness from the Lord that I really admire. I hope no one tries to debate that it is still political O_O
To repent, is to first admit mistakes were made. I’ve always argued that the Bible is full of sexist and racist text, but knowing that the church tries, it’s good enough for me. I hope that people critical of the Bible would oversee things that read on the Bible that might seem wrong in today’s context, and instead appreciate the real message in the Bible - Love and Forgiveness.
Forgiveness and humility are two of the seven traditional virtues :
Chastity (purity of soul)
Temperance (self-restraint)
Charity (giving)
Diligence (zeal/initiative)
Forgiveness (composure)
Kindness (admiration)
Humility (humbleness/modesty)
We need more virtues and lovess in this world. If everyone follows the mantra of “love thy neighbour”… everyone will love everyone… If only. Of course, I could go on and on, on a philosophical debate to why evil and pain are necessary, but maybe I shan’t.
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