The Daily Telegraph insinutates in its headline that Bruni has blamed Pope Benedict personally for her lapsation from Catholicism. I fail to see how that can be true since for many years she has been self-confessedly leading a life opposed to the Church's sexual mores.
Some quotes from her:
"I'm monogamous from time to time, but I prefer polygamy and polyandry." Time Magazine, 31st December, 2007.
She has said she is easily "bored with monogamy". and that "love lasts a long time, but burning desire - two to three weeks." BBC News, 15th January, 2008
"I want a man with nuclear power." Times Online, 10th February, 2008.
Leaving aside Bruni's statements about her attitudes to relationships between men and women, which are clearly not in keeping with Catholic orthodoxy, several issues arise from her decision to speak against the Church at this moment.
First, though not the most important, is diplomatic behaviour according to protocol. Danielle Mitterand, a non-believer, but one who had enough to put up with in the marital infidelity stakes, has roundly rebutted Bruni's recent public statements which seem to show no concern whatsoever that they may damage the diplomacy and statesmanship of her husband, whatever one thinks of either of those. It's just not 'comme il faut ma biche'. (Biche, incidentally, is not an insult, but literally a nanny-goat, and a term of affection between female friends.) The French, whether they admit it or not, will be embarrassed by this 'intervention' of their President's wife. (In fact the marriage of Sarkozy to Bruni is, in spite of all stereotypes about French sexuality, an embarrassment to them. It's not mentioned, swept under the carpet in general conversation, almost as if he let the side down. Why did he have to marry her? Why could he not have kept her as a mistress, as has always been done in the past?
The French lay great store by their language being that of diplomacy, and it is still so in the Vatican. Some poor soul will have to tell the Pope! But being Benedict, he will already know and make it easy for the poor blighter.
Second, this Bruni nonsense has allowed the Telegraph to perpetuate another untruth about the attitude of French Catholics to the Pope after the condom uproar. As i pointed out in a post at the time, the supposed 43% of Catholics who thought the Pope should resign, were actually non-practising. Amongst practising French Catholics, his stock rose by 11% as a result. (I am sick of ignorance combined with deliberate manipulation, particularly in a paper that I've read all my adult life, but for which I now refuse to pay 3 euros merely to be infuriated. Thanks but no thanks, not even for my beloved crossword.)
Third, why has Bruni decided to make these statements now? Benedict is by no means without his supporters on the condom issue, and while keeping it in mind, seekers after peace and reason have all moved on, and are now considering the impact of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Clearly, she has been asleep. Either that, or she is deliberately trying to discredit the Holy Father and divert attention from his most recent acts and words. Whichever way it is, the woman's arrogance beggars belief.
The British Daily Telegraph shows its abysmal paucity of intellect, of any real concern for the peoples of the Middle East, or of respect for the complex political and religious issues that Pope Benedict genuinely and most courageously addressed for years before this visit and most certainly during it. Underneath all this is the paper's assumption that where politicians have failed, a religious leader, least of all the Pope, cannot possibly succeed. So, rather than offer a seriously considered evaluation of the Papal visit, they are content to repeat the unhelpful and irrelevant dribblings of Carla Bruni. Pathetic.
That's enough for tonight. More tomorrow, but in the meantime, I hope someone will be able to tell me, with proof, that I'm wrong about the Telegraph.
God bless all here, and God bless and preserve our Holy Father Benedict.
1 comment:
It's simply adolescent whingeing 'I won't be Catholic because they don't do free love'! Puh-leese! It's always someone else's fault isn't it? So His Holiness is somehow to blame because Ms Bruni prefers sex to religion? Derrr!
As for the Telegraph, I can't say! I don't buy newspapers any more because they all seem to be occasions of sin more often than not, and I pick and choose from news on-line.
Hope all is well and Colin's recovering fast :)
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