Pope Francis urges protection of nature, weak

[demosincebirth]

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis laid out the priorities of his pontificate during his installation Mass on Tuesday, urging the princes, presidents, sheiks and thousands of ordinary people attending to protect the environment, the weakest and the poorest and to let tenderness "open up a horizon of hope."

It was a message Francis has hinted at in his first week as pontiff, when his gestures of simplicity often spoke louder than his words. But on a day when he had the world's economic, political and religious leadership sitting before him on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica for the official start of his papacy, Francis made his point clear.

"Please," he told them. "Let us be protectors of creation, protectors of God's plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment."

The Argentine native is the first pope from Latin America and the first named for the 13th-century friar St. Francis of Assisi, whose life's work was to care for nature, the poor and most disadvantaged

more:

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-francis-urges-protection-nature-weak-103014574.html

[TommyCelt]

1. Encouraging.

I've been cautiously optimistic about the new Pope. I want to see a plan for dealing with the cover-up prong of the abuse scandals, and an expression of true sorrow for what was done, and what was not done, to protect our children from these predators.

I'll reserve judgment for now and simply say I like him far, FAR more than his predecessor thus far.

[daleanime]

2. Well, he is an improvement.

[skepticscott]

4. An improvement over

what, though? Being better than Ratzi, especially when that amounts to no more than what the Catholic Church should have been saying all along on these issues, isn't much to be impressed about.

Still waiting for him to talk about the church changing its stance on gays and women.

[trotsky]

3. And Gee Dubya said he was a "compassionate conservative."

Given the documented history of lies and abuse of power from that office, I'm going to wait and see how he (and the church as he runs it) actually act.

One thing's for certain, they've launched a massive PR campaign for the new guy.

[skepticscott]

5. Yes, they have

Every statement he's made has been very carefully crafted to make liberal Catholics feel warm and fuzzy. It's certainly working on DU.

[trotsky]

7. It feels eerily like another time in history that's being discussed on its 10th anniv.

The invasion of Iraq. 9/11 was still fresh in everyone's mind. Dubya still had a whopping approval rating. Anyone who was suspicious and untrusting of the new guy was deemed "un-American" and shouted down. "How DARE you give aid and comfort to the enemy? Don't you hate terrorists?"

[Xipe Totec]

6. When you learn to find a smile...

When you learn to find a smile
in the subtle drops that exude
from porous rocks in the mist,
or from the sun, the birds, and the breeze;

When nothing to your eyes remains lifeless,
or amorphous, or colorless, or distant,
and you grasp life and the mysteries
of silence, shadows and death.

When you can cast your gaze at the different
paths of the cosmos, and your effort
becomes a potent microscope
that discovers invisible universes;

Only then in a blazing bonfire
of infinite and superhuman love,
like St. Francis of Assisi, will make brothers
of the tree, the jungle and the beast.

And you will feel in the immense multitude
of beings and things your own self;
and will become fear itself at the abyss
and will become pride itself upon the summit.

Your love will shake the defiling pollen
that stains the very whiteness of the lily,
you will bless the sandy seashores
and cherish the flight of insects;

And you will kiss the briar thorns
And the silky petals of the dahlias…
And piously cast off your sandals
to keep from hurting the stones along your path.

ENRIQUE GONZALEZ MARTINEZ
Mexican Diplomat and Poet
(1871-1952)

(humbly translated by yours truly)

http://palabravirtual.com/index.php?ir=ver_poema1.php&p ...