“The gun toting USA”
Posted by Terry Nelson on Apr 16th, 2008
Good catch!
One of my favorite priest-bloggers, the dashing Fr. Blake of St. Mary Magdalen’s U.K. noticed something different about the length of Pope Benedict’s cassock - he compared photos from yesterday as the Pope was leaving Rome, with photos of the Pontiff in Washington. This is what “Fr. Marple” noted:
Papal hemlines…
Notice anything about the Apostolic hemline? A rarely seen glimpse of the papal socks. Is the Holy Father a bit bulkier around the body? Compare the pre and post flight pictures.
It looks like he has been forced to wear body armour. In Europe he wanders around with relatively little security, in the gun toting USA things are going to be very different. - Fr. Blake
April 16th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Did not even occur to me.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Doesn’t Our Holy Father look grand today?????
April 16th, 2008 at 8:33 am
The good Father seems to forget St. Peter’s square 1981. Criminals are everywhere, but I’m not taking offense, in too good of a mood. :>
April 16th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Susan - good point - I appreciated Father’s remark because it illustrates the reputation Americans have around the world. I was watching a news report with a young Egyptian woman, who asked the reporter, “Who do Americans think they are?” Without going into detail about the interview, as a Nation, we are perceived very differently by other people around the world from what we like to think of ourselves.
But both you and Father Blake raise good points.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I know such generalizations exist I just nearly dropped my gun (;>lol)when an educated priest made the statement—esp one from England where all people keep mistresses and fox hunt with riffles on the weekend. (that was bad :>)
I guess if an uneducated lay person made the remark I wouldn’t have blinked, but I expect a priest with an extensive education to avoid generalizations especially since in his description of Americans he includes, us, his own brothers and sisters in the Mystical Body and links us with criminals intent on harming the Holy Father (logical conclusion of statements from Father: the Holy Father is forced to wear body armor in the US because they all tote guns and are homicidal maniacs).
Oh, another day and all is well!
April 16th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Err, DC has one of the strictest gun bans in the country! The Holy Father would be much safer if he were across the Potomac in Virginia; it’s a right-to-carry state here.
April 16th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
noticed I wrote “riffles” should have been “rifles”—
If it were riffles, that would make hunting a little difficult. :>
April 17th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Handguns are banned in the UK - as is hunting with dogs.
If you want the truth we’re bloody terrified for the safety of His Holiness in the U.S.
Your so-called gun laws are reprehensible - where I lived you couldn’t give a schoolkid an aspirin but a twelve year could go off hunting with a rifle !!! Over 92% of household gun deaths in the U.S. are either accidents, the result of domestic squabbles or caused by an intruder grabbing the gun from the householder and shooting them !!!!
You have more gun deaths in the US in a day than the whole of europe has in a year !
And when it comes to the right to bear arms - there is very little regard given to the mental capacity of the gun owner - I knew one 85 year old man with alzheimer’s who could barely walk, talk or wipe his own bum - yet every day he’d be at his window shooting at what he presumed was groundhogs even though practically blind with cataracts - a local pet or small child would have had no chance.
Guns kill - even if the owner doesn’t want to kill.
Osama Bin Laden threatened His Holiness’ life - how many muslims wish to fulfil this extermination ? not only this His Holiness is about to make a world-shattering speech at the UN - something completely different to the unmitigated pragmatic equivocation and compromise Pope Paul VI gave - How many people in power truly want His Holiness to declare the Church as the enemy of everything they stand for ?
How easy to end it all with a bullet - especially in a country where bullets are easier to buy than a packet of fags ?
I and my family are praying hard for His Holiness’ safety - If I were his security chief I’d have him wearing kevlar pyjamas and full body armour in the shower !!!
If this appears to be offensive to US sentiments then I am truly sorry - but any nutter can get hold of a gun over there - so we worry !
April 17th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Totalitarianism is not possible with an armed populace. Invasion is less likely to be successful with an armed populace. Just pointing out a couple of facts.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:28 am
HAH!!!
Um I seem to remember post 9-11 your government invoked a patriot act which basically introduced a totalitarian police state under all your noses - how many rights did you give away in panic and fear ?
Wasn’t it Benjamin Franklin who said “The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. ” ?
Your ‘right to bear arms’ accidentally kills tens of thousands of innocents every year ; and the availability of guns allows practically every criminal to be armed and deadly.
it’s stupid !
Guns don’t protect you ; they make you live your lives in fear - and your government loves it !