Messages for Terrorists, Secularists and all Religions

Pope Benedict XVI, Emeritus

From "Co-Workers of the Truth," Meditations for Every Day, Ignatius Press, 1992

The end never justifies the means. What is wrong in itself continues to be wrong however noble the end which it is directed. In other words it is not permitted to use violent means to remedy inhuman conditions in any segment of society. If the means are inhuman, the goal cannot, in the end, fail to be equally inhuman.

Whatever is done in the name of terrorism effects us precisely as Christians and call for a Christian response. In the last analysis, all acts of terrorism that label themselves in one way or another as Marxist share a single characteristic: that man wants to appropriate to himself the role of Divine Providence, to usurp the position of God - the story of paradise and the serpent has an uncanny relevance to our day. [Dec. 31, 1977]

Man wants to be himself the instrument by which history achieves its goal. Because he does not believe in God, he feels obliged to guide the course of history himself and, in doing so , acts as he imagines a God would act. [Meditation, March 8th]

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Christianity is no longer tied to the past; it is firmly rooted in today. That was the electrifying thought that Pope John XX111 himself summarized in the word aggiornamento...

In one of his writings [Church Father Basil in the fourth century, which was also a post-conciliar age] says that the condition of the Church resembles the situation in a nocturnal sea battle, a slaughter in the dark, in which it is impossible to distinguish friend from foe and everything is filled with unbearable shouts from both sides... But the Pope's basic thought was and is correct. Christianity is not linked to any past: "Jesus Christ is yesterday and today forever." (Heb. 13:8) ... is always today because all time proceeds from the creative power of God's eternal today... [Meditation, March 9th]

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A Christianity that believes it has no other function than to be completely in tune with the spirit of the times nothing to say and no meaning to offer. It can abdicate without more ado... [Meditation, March 10th]

George H. Kubeck, cinops be gone, Saturday, March 9, 2013