There's a minor thing that bugs me about Benedict XVI. I'm leaving all of the nastier allegations alone; they're being done to death in other forums, and a lot of them seem unfair to me (and I'm no great fan of the Catholic Church in general or of Cardinal Ratzinger in particular).
But something rubs me the wrong way about a man bedecked in gold damask, grasping and flanked by ostentatious objects and reminders of the church's obscene wealth and power, describing himself as "a simple, humble worker in God's vineyard."
The Dalai Lama, now there's a man who practices that about which he preaches, simple but elegant and radiating peace.
By comparison, the Vatican and the Bishop of Rome seem hopelessly mired in their own bureaucracy, believing their own PR and peddling influence in an unseemly way.
1 comment:
See, you know how different languages rearrange the subject and the descriptor? The translation was mistaken. I took a few hours out of my evening last night to translate the speech into natural english ( a hobby of mine ) and it turns out the *actual* quote is this: "God is but a simple, humble worked in MY vineyard".
It's a common mistake for American translators, but as you can see it has a definite impact on the meaning.
Let me know if you need anything else clarified!
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