This is a violent world. And tragedy occurs on the happiest days. The world is sick with violence. Just please pray. Pray for the deceased, the injured and their families and friends. The world never gets worse because of too many prayers.
We don’t really know anything yet as to the person responsible. There’s talk that it’s a Muslim but we don’t KNOW anything yet.
I can’t imagine how a person could set a bomb for innocent people. I’m just heartsick over it. I know I should pray for the person or persons who set the bomb but I’m not even close to that. Not tonight. There was an eight year old killed today and two other people. What is wrong with people?
April 16, 2013 at 7:03 am
Original sin- (I just got done reading Msg. Pope's essay) The first thing I thought of when I heard of the bombing was Patrick and if he was running. Since you don't mention him I will assume he is safe.
April 16, 2013 at 8:40 am
No, Matthew, this isn't sick. It's evil! Don't fall into that trap.
April 16, 2013 at 11:42 am
I pray always for a criminal I fought two years ago and I'd kill him in a second if he broke in again at night. You can love and pray for the evil person and kill them on time. Thankfully the Feds will seek the death penalty in this case…most Popes after 1253 AD would give me an amen on that. Runners lost their legs and one lost his boy and nearly lost his daughter and wife at the same time. Pray for the murderer…and kill him…Genesis 9:5-6.
April 16, 2013 at 2:58 pm
Bill, I'm not sure death is right for this person. I think he should have to rot in a cell confronted with the pictures and testimony of the torment and pain he caused all these people. Let him rot and marinate in his own guilt. Maybe then he will have enough time to repent and beg God for mercy. Killing on top of more killing is just more death at this point. I pray that they imprison him and that he spends the rest of his days on his knees for what he did.
Having said that, this hit particularly close to home as my husband went to Northeastern U and we would walk through Copley daily on my visits with him. My heart is with the people of Boston in this time.
Sarah
April 16, 2013 at 4:23 pm
Sarah,
No US prison is going to force him to look at such photos. What if he is more likely to repent like the goodthief did… knowing his execution date which is years away in the U.S….on average, ten years away. What if under life sentence, he relaxes his fear of God and commits thousands of solitary sexual sins. Then, he is not only in hell but deeper in hell if he dies mid sleep. This latter possible is no where dealt with by the last two Popes.
Saint Pius V killed many men in his role as general inquisitor and as Pope but he went too far…fire in the Old Testament was only used
for two sexual sins not for false teachers. Saint Paul in scripture had said to ignore the heretic after two warnings… not ignite him. Pope Sixtus V killed thousands of brigands in Rome. He went too far if some were only thieves. Both Popes seemed to have exceeded scripture whereas our JPII and Benedict seemed to have fallen short of scripture and had been trying to improve Church image with secular Europe and so neither man quoted and dealt with Romans 13:4 or Gen.9:5-6. Read the death penalty sections of Evangelium Vitae. John Paul didn't believe the scriptures that told of God giving the Levitical death penalties in the first person imperative ( section 40). Pope Benedict in section 42 of Verbum Domini said "the prophets challenged…every form of violence". That's news to Elijah who killed 552 men minimum on three different occasions (IKings18:38-40 e.g.) Eliseus was mandated by God to kill any of the house of Ahab that escaped the sword of Jehu…I Kings 19:17. Samuel killed Agag ( I Sam.15:33) because Saul failed to as ordered by God. Jeremiah cursed the Chaldeans if they did not massacre the Moabites in Jer.48:10. “Cursed are they who do the LORD’s work carelessly, cursed those who keep their sword from shedding blood.”. Benedict, not knowing many passages inthe OT, was thinking of the "swords into ploughshares" of Isaiah which is really about the post last judgement, renewed world…that's why Joel reverses Isaiah later when speaking of this world: Joel 4:9-10 " Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak man say, "I am a warrior!"
But in the New Testament, Romans 13:3-4 reads:
"For rulers are not a cause of fear to good conduct, but to evil. Do you wish to have no fear of authority? Then do what is good and you will receive approval from it,4 for it is a servant of God for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer."
That was inspired by the Holy Spirit during a Roman empire which had life sentences in the mines which no one escaped. The Inquisition had life sentences.
Therefore SAINT Pius V had life sentences available to him when he executed men. Therefore the claim that the Church always held for life sentences if possible is erroneous history.
April 16, 2013 at 7:18 pm
Bill,
The life sentences you discuss (hard labor in the mines) were truly no better than concentration camp sentences. Those were "life" sentences for the Jews in WWII. Just no one ever survived those camps. Pope Pius V could then be argued as merciful since he spared those sentenced to death the suffering and pain of life in the mines. Those mines and other forced labor situations (if i recall correctly, they also had slaves and criminals sentenced to the galleys as well) were just death sentences waiting to happen.
Pope JPII taught that death sentences were only to be sought where the criminal would be a dire threat to the community (violent, typically repeat offender) and could not be kept captive for life. In those cases, the criminal could be sentenced to death for the protection of the community.
Note how the emphasis was on the safety of the community. Death penalty doesn't work in the USA because of our prison system. It's very effective at keeping inmates inside (even though at high cost to taxpayers), therefore, for the USA, we really CAN imprison violent offenders for life.
Back in Biblical times (of the prophets especially), the prison system was not so effective nor able to deal with the high volume of violent offenders in society. Therefore, it was more expedient, for the safety of the community, to execute violent offenders.
That said, as for the state of the bomber's soul after a long incarceration, I'm afraid that's his responsibility. Let's look after our own salvation before we say it's better to kill some one on the off chance of a last minute repentance of a known sinner. I've got a few logs in my eye that I'm going to look after right now…
Sarah
April 16, 2013 at 8:25 pm
Sarah,
Saint Pius V lived 1200 years after Romans life sentences in the mines. He burned people. He saved no one from nothing. Paul IV was worse. He burned first time repentant heretics in one period in Iberia.
John Paul II did not address a host of concerns about even the ancillary advantages of the dp. The death penalty alone protects inmates and guards from brutal lifers. The death penalty when
taken off the table by prosecutors can: elicit confessions, obtain the whereabouts of body remains, obtain testimony against others.
Read Evangelium Vitae thoroughly as I did. John Paul recurringly points to God protecting Cain from execution as relevant. He doesn't notice that the same God gives a death penalty Gen.9:5-6 when Nimrod is about to become the first king in history in Gen.10:8…AFTER Cain's lifetime. God was protecting Cain from execution by private persons not from the state…because a state didn't exist til Gen.10:8…. after Cain was dead.
Tell us which prophets killed "violent offenders" because there was no prisons. Elijah killed 104 soldiers and 450 prophets of Baal. Samuel killed the leader of the Amalekites. Eliseus killed 42 children who disrespected his office as prophet….and probably some of the house of Ahab. The Jews had slavery in lieu of prisons….Leviticus 25:44-47. That's why there are so many violent proverbial verses like…"a rod for the back of fools"….. because criminals were the slaves in many cases and getting them to work was hell.
…from vigilante justice
April 16, 2013 at 8:29 pm
Last line belongs up higher after "by private persons" then elipse then "from vigilante justice".
April 16, 2013 at 9:48 pm
Bill, you will love this article I wrote several years ago on the Catholic Church's revisionist attitude toward capital punishment:
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=1463
April 16, 2013 at 10:02 pm
Joe,
I'm getting a 404 file not found notice. I think it's not your source but the indequacy of the ipad which alone I use now. I get the 404 notice so many times that it must be an ipad shortcoming as to some websites or their archives in general. I'll save the address in case I have other options one day. Thanks.