From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/10/2007 4:23 AM
In The Pope We Trust

09 December 2007
By Garvan Grant
Last week, Pope Benedict XVI, who is unquestionably the holiest and kindest person on the planet, issued the second encyclical of his papacy.

Entitled Spe Salvi, which can be very loosely translated as SomeHope of Being Saved, the pope outlined his belief that mankind cannot be saved by National Socialism, fast cars, loose women or banana daiquiris, no matter how good any of them taste or make you feel.

He warned that science, materialism and atheism cannot redeem mankind, but that faith and hope can. These are reassuring words to hear from the pope, particularly as we approach Christmas, which celebrates the birth of our saviour, Jesus Christ.

As God said in the Bible just before his only begotten son was born: ‘‘Always celebrate my son’s birthday by eating, drinking and spending as much cash as possible.”

Pope Benedict’s timely document, which has been read by Catholics everywhere, may just cause a lot of people to stop and think about their lives and spending habits in this special period of Advent.

He writes that materialism is not the answer to man’s salvation, and that a favourable economic environment can only help so much. He attacks Karl Marx for believing that once the economy was sorted, everything else would follow suit.

If anyone would know that, it would be the pope himself. He could easily live in poverty, but he chooses to live in the Vatican, so he can show the rest of the world that wealth is not the answer to their problems.

He and his pals in the Vatican probably don’t indulge in cars, women or daiquiris of any flavour, but instead lead a fairly austere, Lutheran lifestyle.

Indeed, if Martin Luther, who was to blame for the Reformation, was to travel to Rome today, he would probably apologise to the pope and convert back to Catholicism immediately.

Benedict also writes that science and technological progress are all well and good, but that they cannot redeem mankind. Science, which is just the constant pursuit of knowledge and an attempt to make things better, is not the same as love.

For it is love and hope that will save us. Unfortunately, love and hope are the preserve of Catholics alone, so everyone else will be condemned without them. You simply can’t be an atheist or an agnostic and still believe in love and hope.

The basis for love and hope, which were discovered by the first Catholics to visit Earth thousands of years ago, is, of course, faith. If you don’t have faith, you are pretty much lost. Faith is a bit like the opposite of science, in that if you have faith, you no longer need to look for any other answers.

This is why Catholics and indeed the members of all the quality religions are better than all the non-believers out there desperately searching for answers.

Faith means you can believe without proof or too much evidence at all. To be able to do that makes you better than all the people who say that they won’t believe in God because there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that He exists. What blind fools.

In a completely unrelated story to the encyclical criticising materialism, Pope Benedict XVI last month decided to offer financial bonuses to the 3,000 or so people who work in the Vatican.

The bonus scheme will begin in January and will reward Vatican workers, including cardinals, nuns and other clergy, who show ‘‘dedication, correctness, professionalism and productivity’’.

Many Vatican workers already receive free housing and cars and, because the Vatican is a sovereign state, all Vatican workers also have access to a duty-free shop and tax-free petrol. It is good to know that our spiritual welfare is being looked after by Pope Benedict and all his staff in the Vatican.

These faithful workers are finally being rewarded for their holy work in this realm before they go on to receive the best and most important bonus of all in the next one: eternal life sitting beside or near God.

Isn’t Vladimir Putin great?
If you thought Pervez Musharraf, Hugo Chavez or George Bush were world leaders in democracy, you obviously haven’t been following the career of Vladimir Putin.

No one knows how democracy works better than Putin, who following last Sunday’s free and open elections, is now prime minister, president, king and emperor of all Russia.

His United Russia party, of which he is cleverly not a member, had a landslide victory, getting 63 per cent of the vote. This is obviously a great result for Putin, as it paves the way for him to remain the most powerful figure in the Kremlin.

Fortunately, during the election campaign, the state media concentrated almost exclusively on him and didn’t bother with the smaller opposition parties. These parties couldn’t have been elected anyway, as someone changed the threshold for seats to 7 per cent a few months ago. This effectively precluded them from entering parliament.

Another stroke of luck for Putin and the United Russia party was that so many people turned out so often and so early to vote for them. Even in Chechnya, where Putin hasn’t always been so popular, it is believed that over 99 per cent of the electorate voted for the ruling party.

The dark days of the Soviet Union are thankfully behind us, and the soft-spoken, almost cuddly Putin represents the new face of a powerful and resourceful Russia. He is obviously a strong believer in the democratic process, but more importantly, he knows what is good for Russia.

Maybe next, he will try to convince – in a democratic fashion – the other former countries of the Soviet Union that they would all be stronger under one powerful and loving leader.

The Life and Times of Virgil Profane
When my uncle, Virgil Profane, was just four years old, he was brought to Dublin in time to witness the greatest struggle for freedom the world had ever known. The Easter Rising of 1916 and the subsequent struggle for Irish independence had a profound effect on the impressionable young boy, and he never took war for granted after those difficult years.

At that time, Virgil was also lucky to have met the man many Irish people still regard as the father of Irish freedom, Patrick Pearse. Virgil was enrolled at Pearse’s boys school, St Enda’s in Ranelagh. There, he took classes in the subjects so dear to Pearse’s heart: Latin, Irish, algebra, bloodshed and a love of all things boyish.

In fact, Virgil got an A in Latin and Irish in his Easter exams. Unfortunately, he didn’t do so well in the surprise differential calculus exam Pearse set for him late one dark night. Pearse, being the conscientious teacher he was, administered a severe spanking to Virgil for this.

Afterwards, Virgil never forgot the importance of administering a good beating when it was necessary. Indeed, Countess Markievicz is said to have enjoyed several of these from Virgil’s hands in the 1920s, when Irish freedom was still in its infancy.

Although written several years before Virgil’s birth, many modern poetry critics still believe that Pearse’s beautiful poem, Little Lad of the Tricks, refers to Virgil and his time at St Enda’s.

It should be noted before reading these few lines from that poem that this was before the invention of paedophilia and that Pearse is and was a great Irish hero, whose dad was from Birmingham:
from Little Lad of the Tricks by Patrick Pearse:
Raise your comely head
Till I kiss your mouth:
If either of us is the better of that
I am the better of it.
There is a fragrance in your kiss
That I have not found yet
In the kisses of women
Or in the honey of their bodies.

© Thomas Crosbie Media, 2007

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