Pope Has It All Wrong

In an interview, the Pope said that the youth of France has sent a message. He said that there needed to be more done about economic conditions and social integration. The riots started after two youngsters accidentally died while running from the police. Then all hell broke loose and there were riots across the country. I think the message was clear. The youth of France who are running from the police think it is OK to break the law and damage other people’s property because of self inflicted stupidity.

Pope BenedictEarlier reports that I read said that both of the youths were Muslims. Strangely, there is no mention of that little fact in the article.

Pope, you are a holy man and you know that breaking the law is not right. By saying that lawbreakers are sending a message you have given credibility to the very people who broke those laws. Perhaps if the French had sent a message and started shooting rioters when the trouble began it would have ended much more quickly.

Read it here.

Photo from the article (Reuters)

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2 Responses to “Pope Has It All Wrong”

  1. Freedom7 says:

    There are several issues involved in this story and your reaction to it. I’m not likely to find myself defending France (or Reuters, for that matter). My interpretation of the Pope’s comments indicate not so much a defense of rioting youths (he notes that activity is to be condemned) as an indictment of the French social system and a challenge to that nation to live up to its ideals (you know, the ones it is always preaching to us). I don’t think the Pope is supporting rioting, but appears to be advising that this probably won’t be the last trouble of this sort France has if the problem finds its source in wide-spread social subjugation. (It would hardly surprise me if the society of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity was guilty of this).

    Your assertion that vigorous application of anti-riot laws would be more likely to quell the trouble are probably true in the short run (in my uninformed but highly conservative opinion), but the Pope’s extensive education and experience in European politics, in addition to his obviously Christian and Catholic perspective, appear to have led him to his current position. And that position is probably not taken lightly – he is, after all, a prominent German defending France, and the leader of 1+ billion Catholic Christians speaking in behalf what appears to be a large muslim minority in that country. Pope Benedict XVI is fulfilling one of the most important roles for his position – peacemaker.

  2. Big Dog says:

    I think the deliberate act of ignoring the fact that this was Muslim fueled leaves some suspicion.
    I will agree that the Pope is a peacemaker but with the condemnation, IMHO, should have come the disclosure that two youths were breaking the law and their acts caused their deaths. I do not think the rioting had as much to do with subjugation as it did with wanton disregard for the law based upon the deaths of two lawbreakers.

    The Pope, as far as I know, is a good man but ignoring the facts tends to lay blame for something on issues that most probably were not forefront to the issue.