Video Tuesday: Can We Make HIM Pope?

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England is in some ways the cradle of free-speech. Up until a few years ago it was in some still the capital of it. Most famous is Hyde Park Corner where anyone can mount a box and say anything. Long live the Queen! Down with capitalism! Jamaicans are lazy! Subsidize hemp! Whatever.

Some may not like that. I do.

But in regards to free speech, contemporary England is now choking on it. "Islamophobia" has been criminalized. If I lived in England, I would be on trial now (if anyone wanted to make an issue of it).

And even good old Hyde Park Corner is under pressure. It now abuts a heavily Muslim district, and Muslims like using the parks.  Denounce Allah from your box and you'll soon get a swarm of bearded and five-o'clock shadowed hecklers. Heckling is what they'll do if you're lucky.

But here's a faithful Christian who doesn't give a fig. His brand isn't mentioned, but I assume he's Protestant. Any informed Christian would assume so, and that makes me sad. Since Vatican II, western Catholics have largely abandoned evangelizing for Christ, especially to hostile audiences.

They would rather denounce the death penalty to friendly audiences.

But one brave man chose to defend Christ amidst a smirking horde.

A grinch was defied, even with kabob breath.

This faithful Christian has been labeled as "elderly". Compared to us, he's twenty-five.

Can he be the next pope, please?

Cardinal Tauran: Key Document of Vatican II Rewritten So As Not To Annoy Muslims

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Cardinal Tauran and Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the current President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue had this to say a few days ago about the Council's Declaration on Non-Christian religions:

Nostra Aetate came about because St John XXIII wanted some sort of document along those lines for Vatican II but he died in 1963, before the council could consider it,. Some delegates to the council did not want to have such a document come up for discussion, Cardinal Tauran explained, and when discussion finally took place, “some bishops from the Middle East were concerned about this problem” that the draft of the document spoke only about the relationship between Catholics and Jews, and that this would not sit well with Muslim civic and religious leaders in the region. 

“It soon became clear that 'Nostra Aetate' had nothing to do with (the state of) Israel,” Cardinal Tauran said, and the document was modified to include Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and other faith systems.

I'm not sure what the Cardinal means by "it soon became clear..." Nostra Aetate doesn't explicitly discuss the state of Israel, though much of it obviously is devoted to a discussion of Judaism and the Jews. Does he mean that when the document was originally drafted as the "Decree on the Jews" there were initially references to Israel that were taken out when it was broadened to include other religions?