On the 27th of November 1095 Pope Urban II summoned and convened the most famous of his councils, that at Clermont in Auvergne to address several issues including reforms to the Holy Catholic church and the excommunication of Philip of France for adultery.
In the Eleventh century while the sword of Islam was on the march much of Western Christendom had found itself embroiled in petty and self-destructive political and territorial disputes, relentless and selfish calls for ecclesiastical reform and an overall decline in morality.
It was at the end of the council that Pope Urban II gave his anticipated speech where he desperately appealed for unity and resolve in confronting an imminent peril, the advance of Islam which had swept across Jerusalem and Constantinople
"From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth and very frequently has been brought to our ears: namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race, a race utterly alienated from God, a generation, forsooth, which has neither directed its heart nor entrusted its spirit to God, has invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopulated them by sword, pillage, and fire..."
Pope Urban II, Proclamation at Clermont, 1095
Today we find ourselves embroiled in circumstances not that much different in scope that those of the Eleventh century. The brutal sword of Islam is once again on the march, and this time on several fronts from America and Europe to Sudan and Pakistan. Completely oblivious to this, we find ourselves consumed and preoccupied with our own self-destructive territorial and political disputes. Not content with being the catalyst for the implosion and schism of liberal denominations, liberals and secularists among us have now focused their attacks on the Catholic Church seeking the Vatican's imprimatur of their sins. Does this sound familiar? It is history repeating itself.
No longer respectful of the santity of life, we find ourselves selfishly concerned rather with what we perceive to be the quality of life. We debate the legality and morality of starving a disabled person to death all while we display an amoral indifference to the wholesale slaughter and rape of our fellow Christians by Muslims in places such as Sudan and Indonesia.
So consumed in our petty squabbles we fail to recognize the greater threat that we are all facing.
It would appear that we seem to have lost our way, floating helplessly adrift on a sea of moral relativism. We have failed and our leaders have failed us. We have allowed ourselves to be governed not by natural law, by what is right and wrong, but insidiously by political correctness and tolerance. Our behaviour, the way the we live our lives and conduct ourselves is not a matter of taste like chocolate or vanilla, it is like light and dark.
There are no lawyers in Heaven, no legal representation. We will not be judged by what we perceived to be right and wrong or what was legal at the time or not. We will in fact find that our political correctness and our tolerance will become our undoing.
We have failed and our leaders have failed because we have allowed our compassion and tolerance to be misconstrued as our acquiescence.
We are in need of a shepherd and leader now and not a communicator or a "bridge builder" between good and evil, but a "bridge builder" who can unite all Christian faiths in recognizing the evil that we are all facing together. A Pope who will have the strength, courage and resolve to not only stand firm but to unite and lead us as well in the battle between good and evil.
In the Eleventh century while the sword of Islam was on the march much of Western Christendom had found itself embroiled in petty and self-destructive political and territorial disputes, relentless and selfish calls for ecclesiastical reform and an overall decline in morality.
It was at the end of the council that Pope Urban II gave his anticipated speech where he desperately appealed for unity and resolve in confronting an imminent peril, the advance of Islam which had swept across Jerusalem and Constantinople
"From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth and very frequently has been brought to our ears: namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race, a race utterly alienated from God, a generation, forsooth, which has neither directed its heart nor entrusted its spirit to God, has invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopulated them by sword, pillage, and fire..."
Pope Urban II, Proclamation at Clermont, 1095
Today we find ourselves embroiled in circumstances not that much different in scope that those of the Eleventh century. The brutal sword of Islam is once again on the march, and this time on several fronts from America and Europe to Sudan and Pakistan. Completely oblivious to this, we find ourselves consumed and preoccupied with our own self-destructive territorial and political disputes. Not content with being the catalyst for the implosion and schism of liberal denominations, liberals and secularists among us have now focused their attacks on the Catholic Church seeking the Vatican's imprimatur of their sins. Does this sound familiar? It is history repeating itself.
No longer respectful of the santity of life, we find ourselves selfishly concerned rather with what we perceive to be the quality of life. We debate the legality and morality of starving a disabled person to death all while we display an amoral indifference to the wholesale slaughter and rape of our fellow Christians by Muslims in places such as Sudan and Indonesia.
So consumed in our petty squabbles we fail to recognize the greater threat that we are all facing.
It would appear that we seem to have lost our way, floating helplessly adrift on a sea of moral relativism. We have failed and our leaders have failed us. We have allowed ourselves to be governed not by natural law, by what is right and wrong, but insidiously by political correctness and tolerance. Our behaviour, the way the we live our lives and conduct ourselves is not a matter of taste like chocolate or vanilla, it is like light and dark.
There are no lawyers in Heaven, no legal representation. We will not be judged by what we perceived to be right and wrong or what was legal at the time or not. We will in fact find that our political correctness and our tolerance will become our undoing.
We have failed and our leaders have failed because we have allowed our compassion and tolerance to be misconstrued as our acquiescence.
We are in need of a shepherd and leader now and not a communicator or a "bridge builder" between good and evil, but a "bridge builder" who can unite all Christian faiths in recognizing the evil that we are all facing together. A Pope who will have the strength, courage and resolve to not only stand firm but to unite and lead us as well in the battle between good and evil.
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