Pope Links Violence In God's Name To Antichrist

By Francis X. Rocca
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY -- Violence committed in the name of God or religion is a "favorite instrument of the Antichrist," Pope Benedict XVI writes in a new book on the life and teachings of Jesus.

"Violence does not build up the kingdom of God, the kingdom of humanity," Benedict writes. "On the contrary, it is a favorite instrument of the Antichrist, however idealistic its religious motivation may be. It serves not humanity, but inhumanity."

The passage appears in Jesus of Nazareth -- Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, which was published in English and seven other languages on Thursday (March 10), with an initial printing of 1.2 million copies.

According to its American publisher, Ignatius Press, 90,000 copies of the English edition had been sold before publication.

The book is a sequel to the pope's 2007 bestseller, Jesus of Nazareth, which explored Jesus' public ministry from his baptism to the Transfiguration. In the trilogy that he began before his 2005 election as pope, Benedict studies the Gospels in light of the work of other scholars, including those who have sought to discover the "historical Jesus."

In pre-publication excerpts that were released March 2, Benedict wrote that the Jewish people were not responsible for Jesus' crucifixion, and their descendants have not inherited blame for his death.

Comments

[Rangergirl]

11:58 PM on 05/05/2011

Well then the Anti Christ was around for the Crusades, Inquisition, Nazi Germany exterminating Jews,

[brokerallen]

10:56 PM on 04/26/2011

Although not a Catholic I wholeheartedly agree with the Pope.

[edgermanJ]

11:47 AM on 04/14/2011

On the third day Jesus emerges from the tomb and if he sees his shadow we get 6 more weeks of winter.

[b525]

11:52 AM on 04/11/2011

Why do Catholics claim that Mary is the "Mother of God"?....God would not impregnate his own mother, therefore Mary is the WIFE of God and Jesus is the SON of Mary and Joseph, who were married through Joseph's love and committment to Mary.

Joseph, Jesus and Mary all had glorified/perfected spiritual minds and bodies in heaven, even as they were alive with their imperfect minds and spirits.

Jesus is the son of Joseph/God and shares in his glorified/perfected spirit.

Nestorius disputed the "Mother of God" doctrine and was excommunicated from the Catholic Church along with others.

[Nature Rules]

12:43 AM on 04/17/2011

Correct, Osiris the God, Isis the mother and Horus the son this is the allegory..

[fineartgalaxy]

01:36 PM on 04/08/2011

The Pope is the AntiChrist. All Popes past, present and future. If a Pope is the only person directly assisted by the Holy Spirit and he is the supreme authority in Canon Law and dogma, he is then the essence of the AntiChrist. For one man to be appointed as God's favorite is to be crowned as the AntiChrist.

[chaotician1]

02:51 PM on 04/06/2011

LOL, then most the Popes must have been the antichrist embodied! They and their Church have murdered, destroyed, burned, raped, pillaged, and tortured throughout history! Their collection actions have been far worse than any king,dictator, or despot; and most of them were blessed by the Church for their collusion with the holy mother church!

[SouthernQ]

09:46 AM on 03/29/2011

Ratzinger is the antichrist

[Veritas is Pro Life]

10:04 AM on 04/01/2011

Well thought out....

[SouthernQ]

10:13 AM on 04/01/2011

Anyone who has your beliefs should not talk about thought.

[rabrophy]

03:49 AM on 03/29/2011

"Violence committed in the name of God or religion is a "favorite instrument of the Antichrist," Pope Benedict XVI writes"
Child rape is a crime of voilence.
Priest use religion to facilate their rape of children.
In the name of God, Pope Benedict is still covering up for his Priests.
Therefore: Pope Benedict is, useing his own resoning, an instrument of the Antichrist.

[Veritas is Pro Life]

10:05 AM on 04/01/2011

not true. The Church is now taking appropriate action on Priests who commit such sins.

[edgermanJ]

11:45 AM on 04/14/2011

Does that erase centuries of inappropriate actions, taken before your God, in the full knowledge of prior "infallible" popes, and often within His own house? When does this whole ridiculous house of cards finally collapse?

[iridium53]

11:32 AM on 03/28/2011

The Pope as a Flip Wilson copycat - the devil made me do it.

So, that's how they explain all the pedophilia they've committed, hidden and sponsored?

[New Yorker]

07:18 PM on 03/27/2011

As a Catholic I am both appauled and encouraged by the scandal of the pedophile priests within the Catholic Church. Appauled by the horrendous crime and the terrible damage done to victims of Pedophilia, just like victims of all perversions.

Encouraged because the Father of Lies has intensified his attacks against his greatest enemy, the formidable Catholic church Jesus uses to save the souls of billions of God's children. I imagine that satan knows his time grows short, and the church is defeating evil at every turn, and the pedophiles who became priests are some of his most evil creations against God.

He has no need to attack the heretics and apostasies that pretend to lead souls to heaven, they are doing his work too well for him to attack them. But the Catholics and the Pope, the successor to Saint Peter, that is Lucifer's greatest enemy of all, and so the pedophile priests prove that the Catholic Church is the organization he fears and hates most intensely.

[Aaron Pozdol]

12:48 AM on 03/27/2011

Is he really unaware of the papal role in warfare in the 11th-14th centuries? Where was the devil then? Or, is violence a trait inherent ion the human condition? Which is more likely, Pope?

[tweinbrenner]

11:29 AM on 04/08/2011

He certainly knows about it, but he would probably anger the conservatives because of the papal infallibity. So it's just "violence in the name of God is bad - and draw your own conclusions about my predecessors".

[BobSF94117]

09:47 PM on 03/24/2011

Hundreds and hundreds of pages to come to the convenient explanation that the Devil made me do it!

[Bill J4321]

02:19 PM on 03/18/2011

What does the Pope link child rape to? His church?

[New Yorker]

09:59 AM on 03/19/2011

a simple answer for the simple mind. Evil is never simple, but it is cherished by the simple mind.

[Henryk Zaleski]

05:46 PM on 03/22/2011

He's saying that the Church is a perpatrator of great evil itself, and does nothing to fix it (sometimes worse than nothing). Cursing the darkness rather than lighting a candle as it were. Is it good that as influential a figure as the Pope says that violence in the name of God is evil? Yes. It's marvelous. But he's really seeing splinters in his neighbor's eyes.

[eucharius]

02:38 AM on 04/01/2011

So what did my abuser "cherish"?

[zwyziec]

01:46 AM on 03/17/2011

When Benedict was a member of the Hister Youth Organization, I wonder if he thought then about an anti-Christ.

[cliffhammond]

02:34 AM on 03/17/2011

I don't think 13-year-old boys are all that concerned about government or religion.

[buhhdaluvsallbutyou]

03:05 AM on 03/17/2011

they just hope they can run faster than the priest

[zwyziec]

01:39 AM on 03/17/2011

I wonder if he ever thought about the anti-christ when he was a member of Hitler's youth organization in Germany.

[Veritas is Pro Life]

10:10 AM on 04/01/2011

Here's the truth-

It is a fact that Ratziner was once, albeit briefly and involuntarily, enrolled as a member of the Hitler Youth.

But...The historical evidence is overwhelming that Joseph Ratzinger’s family was ferociously anti-Nazi, and that the future pope was appalled by the arrogance and destructiveness of National Socialism. He was never a Nazi party member, entered an auxiliary unit of the German army only when forced to do so, and deserted before war’s end. He was an American prisoner of war in a camp near Ulm, Germany, before being released and returning to his seminary studies.

Veritas.