The tension in NYC over the Muslims attempt to build a Mosque near the sacred ground of ground zero has split our country in a very profound way.
I was reading the Wall street journal, and there was an article stating , "Maybe there is another way"
The Nuns intentions were good, the intentions of the murky figures behind the mosque might not be as benevolent as those of the Carmelite Nuns.
But the point is, two very similar standofffs, and two very different responses. The Catholic church erred on the side of sensitivity, and doing what Christ would have us do.
I was reading the Wall street journal, and there was an article stating , "Maybe there is another way"
In the 1980s, Carmelite nuns moved into an abandoned building on the edge of the former Nazi death camp to pray for the souls taken there. As with the dispute over the mosque near Ground Zero, the convent's presence escalated into a clash not only between different faiths but between competing historical narratives. As with today's clash too, it seemed intractable until the Polish pope stepped in.
...So what did Pope John Paul II do? He waited, and he counseled. And when he saw that the nuns were not budgingand that their presence was doing more harm than goodhe asked the Carmelites to move. He acknowledged that his letter would probably be a trial to each of the sisters, but asked them to accept it while continuing to pursue their mission in that same city at another convent that had been built for them.
Let's remember what this means. By their own lights, the nuns believed they were doing only good. They may have had a legal title to be where they were. And it is likely that they never would have been forced to move by local authorities had they insisted on staying.
The Nuns intentions were good, the intentions of the murky figures behind the mosque might not be as benevolent as those of the Carmelite Nuns.
But the point is, two very similar standofffs, and two very different responses. The Catholic church erred on the side of sensitivity, and doing what Christ would have us do.