Brazil - Brazzil Mag - Lula Wants Pope to Show the World Brazil's Good Social Policies

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced this morning during his weekly radio program Breakfast with the President that he will discuss the Church's social action when he meets with Pope Benedict XVI next Thursday, May 10. Lula, will also, he said, try to find ways to disseminate all over the world the "good public policies" accomplished in Brazil.

The Pope arrives in Brazil on Wednesday, May 9, and he will be received by Lula at the airport in São Paulo. But the president and the pontiff will only have a formal meeting the next day. On Friday, Brazil will have its first saint ever, Friar Galvão.

His intention says Lula is to "discuss with the Pope the social policies we are conducting in Brazil so that he, as the most important person in the Catholic church, may help to disseminate these good public policies to the world, where the Catholic church has an important role."

Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday, May 6, his trip to Brazil will be an effort to promote the Church's evangelization so that Latin America will more and more be "the continent of hope."

The Pope said at his Regina Caeli address in Saint Paul's square: "This is my first pastoral visit to Latin America and I am preparing myself spiritually to visit the continent where almost half the Catholics of the whole world, many of them young people, live."

"It is for this reason," he added, "that Latin America has been given the name 'continent of hope': It is a hope that has to do not only with the Church but with the whole of America and the entire world."

The Pope invited the faithful to pray for the May 9-14 "apostolic pilgrimage and, in particular, for the 5th General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean, so that all the Christians of those regions may see themselves as disciples and missionaries of Christ, the way, the truth and the life."

The Pontiff will open the conference, which begins next Sunday in the national shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, in the Brazilian city of the same name, situated 170 kilometers from São Paulo.

Benedict XVI said that before the opening of the conference he will stop in the city of São Paulo to meet with the young people and bishops of Brazil and preside at the canonization of Frei Antônio de Sant'Anna Galvão.

"Many and multiple are the challenges of the present," the Pope said. "This is why it is important that Christians be formed to be a 'ferment' of good and a 'light' of holiness in our world.

Lula wants Pope...... ????
written by ch.c., 2007-05-07 16:17:32

Is this an order to the Pope ?????

Is giving only less than 2 % of the Federal Budget to the Bolsa Familia....a good social policy ?

...
written by AES, 2007-05-07 16:42:34

And what of the people of the Favela? Of what will the Pope see of them? What will the great wealth of the Papacy do?

Faith Without Deeds

James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

James 2:24 So you see, we are made right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.

1 John 3:17 But if anyone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help--how can God's love be in that person?

The continent of hope?
written by João PInga, 2007-05-07 19:20:35

97% of Brazilians believe in God (reported in Epoca last week), 1% is atheist and the remaining 2 % is agnostic. Brazil is one of the most violent Nations on the planet. Brazil also has one of the worst educational systems on earth.

Norway and Sweden, respectively, have some of the lowest crime rates on the planet and posses model educational systems, yet more than 60% are atheists.

Things that make you go "hmmmmmmmmm".

But to the article, would Lula please-- next time -- articulate these “good public policies” he’d like Pope Poopy Pants disseminate for us? MMMMMkay.

...
written by AES, 2007-05-07 20:36:01

Atheisists are an interesting group. What is it that they do not believe in? So there is a something they do not believe in. They do not believe in 'God'. So in there disbelief they give creedence to 'God' the thing they do not believe in. So by definition they give existence to what they do not believe in.

I would suggest they are anti-theocracy, or anti religiosity, rather than a-theists.

What if 'God' were Gravity, and there in much modern physics to postulate that 'Gravity' is the cause of it all, the was is and always will be of it all. In which case to be a-Gravity is ad absurdum.

Pantheism and anti-religion....
written by João Pinga, 2007-05-07 20:59:33

Actually, Dawkins does a nice job of describing pantheism in his book the God Delusion. A must read btw. And I agree with him, and you, on this point. I often find myself looking to nature thinking “my god how lovely”, however I refer to nature as the creator, not some mystical maniacal being hell-bent on torture, murder and the suffering of his supposed children (while allowing institutions to collect 10% of your wages to be part of such splendid suffering).

Fact of the matter is we are ALL atheists in terms of the god’s we don’t believe in. Few on this site, I imagine, believe in Thor, Allah, or Ganesh.

Some of us though, go one god further.

Religion is for the weak and feebleminded among us. Just wait till this weds to see the millions of brain dead bible thumpers flipping and flailing about trying to get a glimpse of the CEO of the most corrupt corporation the planet has ever known.

Is it not interesting that the largest group of Catholics in the world just happen to be apart of the most violent nation, with extreme levels of abject poverty too? Good thing that, that god guy is looking out for his most faithful fans.

The faster Brazil focuses on education, abandons this medieval "looking to a cross for answers" mentality, the better the chances Brazil has to enter the 21 century.

James 2:24 So you see, we are made right with God by what we do, not by faith alone !!!!
written by ch.c., 2007-05-07 21:51:07

In Brazil they say :
So you see, we are made right with Lula by what we do, not by faith alone but by including his lies !!!!

Gesta Francorum
written by Ric, 2007-05-08 00:56:38

The USSR was coming along so nicely, promoting Atheism as State Religion, and then the wall came down and people started going to church again in Russia. Just couldn´t knock it out of them. After all those years. Pede pinico que não tem jeito....

What I would like to ask the Pope is, if he were Urban II, would he have made Godfrey or perhaps his brother Baldwin, Supreme Commander to back up Adhemar and Raymond? We´ve been waiting quite awhile for the German perspective on this.....

ACHTUNG BABY
written by João Pinga, 2007-05-08 14:59:16

No sense forcing atheism on the uneducated. Atheism occurs naturally in societies that truly allow freedom of thought, and take education seriously. One of the reasons the Good ole USofA is in trouble with their hordes of radical religious nutbags is because these un-educated bible-thumpers have successfully quashed freedom of speech in terms of discussing religion and have basically made it a moral crime to question the existence of God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCODIhAXbQM

And we know how lovely our “good Christians” are, just look to GTY’s posts (he calls himself a good Christian) on exploiting the meek and his calls for genocide to see he has the same cut of jib as Patsy Robertson, and of course our “Gawd Warrior” in the link above.

Takes Courage
written by Ric, 2007-05-11 16:04:20

Atheists are gutsy. See, if the "Bible Thumpers" are wrong and there is no God, and life ends and....nothing, as one of the Greek philosophers put it, the Bible thumper is no worse off than the Atheist. But if the Bible is right and the Atheist is wrong, he´s screwed. And he´s got to have a lot of chutzpa, because he´s depending on his own intelligence to show him the way. Whereas the Bible guy may not be the sharpest knife in the rack, but he´s not depending on his own smarts, but what he considers part of the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages.

And this trend toward evangelistic Atheism, if I can describe it that way, why would an Atheist want to spread his views around if, according to his own philosophy, in the end it doesn´t matter anyway?

I can only postulate that even the implied opprobrium emanating from the Bible Message as regards lifestyle is extremely offensive to the Atheist. Atheism is his rationale which allows him to sleep at night, but he will only really be in peace when it is the prevailing view. It´s his pill against guilt, like Wodehouse´s Buck-You-Uppo was for shy persons. No such thing as guilt anyway.

Hats off to the brave Atheist.