The Pope Good for Peace

At least there is some good coming out of Italy.

"The ascension of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI is good news for the peace camp: he will carry on the legacy of John Paul II, whose stance against the invasion of Iraq enraged the War Party -- and inspired millions with the hope that God had not abandoned the world to the Devil. The new Pope, as head of the Congregation of the Faith, openly disdained the Bush Doctrine when it was invoked by the U.S. government as a rationale for war: "The "concept of a 'preventive war,'" he noted, "does not appear in the Catechism of the Catholic Church." You bet it doesn't, and if I were the White House I would be expecting much more along these lines. Even as the War Party was reveling in its purported triumph, the Cardinal averred that "it was right to resist the war and its threats of destruction," declaring: "It should never be the responsibility of just one nation to make decisions for the world."

"The Holy Father got that right. Even in the choice of his name, the portents are good. Pope Benedict XV was pope during World War I. He remained neutral and 'in 1917 delivered the Plea for Peace, which demanded a cessation of hostilities, a reduction of armaments, a guaranteed freedom of the seas, and international arbitration.'"

excerpt from "Benedict XVI: A Champion of Peace" by Justin Raimondo
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/index.php?id=P2013