The Day Sin died.

international | arts and media | other press Wednesday June 22, 2005 00:13 by setting crosswords

The day Cardinal Sin of the Philippines died, the Pope Benedict XVI saw published his first book as pontiff.

It is a collection of writings, all previously published.

""The Europe of Benedict -- In the Crisis of Cultures," is a compilation of three major addresses he gave between 1992 and 2005, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and headed the Vatican department that safeguards doctrinal orthodoxy.""
from this point on, this text is cut and paste mixing.
just like old time authentic cyber punk was. I'm taking several articles and quoting them alternatively :-)

Hypatia - mathematician of alexandria - as she was imagined upon her murder by a victorian painter.

- Philippine Cardinal Jaime Sin, a driving force behind popular revolts that ousted two presidents, died on Tuesday after a long illness, leaving a mixed legacy in a country that remains hobbled by divisive politics.

Sin, once called "the divine commander in chief" by former President Fidel Ramos, had been in intensive care for two days with an infection related to a long-standing kidney problem. He was a cardinal elector, and stood a chance of being Pope, but Gods Rottweiler got it instead.

While all the material in Benedict XVI's book was previously published in other forms, the importance the Pope attaches to it was underscored by the fact that the compilation was being presented later on Tuesday by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, his vicar for Rome, and Marcello Pera, speaker of the Italian Senate.

It was also being published less than two weeks after Italy's Roman Catholic Church won a significant victory in a referendum that blocked attempts to dismantle Italy's strict law on assisted fertility and embryo research.

The main Roman Catholic radio station played hymns to mourn Sin, 76, who retired as archbishop of Manila in 2003.

At the Vatican, Pope Benedict said he was deeply saddened by Sin's death and praised "Cardinal Sin's unfailing commitment to the spread of the Gospel and to the promotion of the dignity, common good and national unity of the Philippine people."

In one section of the book, the Pope asks rhetorically why the Church should not accept that abortion is legal in many countries.

"Why don't we resign ourselves to the fact that we lost that battle and dedicate our energies instead to projects where we can find greater social consensus?" he writes.

Because this, he says, would be a superficial and hypocritical solution.

Ordained in 1954, Sin became the youngest member of the Vatican's College of Cardinals when he was made a prince of the church at the age of 47.

Sin was a staunch opponent of artificial birth control, and in August 1994 he mobilized hundreds of thousands of people in a rally denouncing a state policy encouraging use of condoms and pills to curb rapid population growth.

"Recognizing the sacred nature of human life and its inviolability without any exceptions is not a small problem or something that can be considered part of the pluralism of opinions in modern society," he writes.

"There is no such thing as 'small murders'. Respect for every single life is an essential condition for anything worthy of being called social life."
An ethnic Chinese, Sin shot to global prominence in 1986 when he rallied a million people to form human barricades on Manila's main highway to protect a small band of 300 army rebels against advancing tanks loyal to dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

His radio broadcasts in support of the mutineers ignited the now legendary "People Power" revolt that drove Marcos into exile and swept political novice Aquino to the presidency.

Arroyo rose to the presidency in the second "People Power" mass protests that ousted former movie star Joseph Estrada in 2001. She now faces allegations of electoral fraud that the government says are part of a plot to unseat her.

"I join you in praying that God our merciful Father will grant him the reward of his labors," he said in a telegram.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said: "History will mark this day of sadness when a great liberator of the Filipino people and a champion of God passed away. Cardinal Sin leaves a legacy of freedom and justice forged in deep personal courage."

The main Roman Catholic radio station played hymns to mourn Sin, 76, who retired as archbishop of Manila in 2003.

At the Vatican, Pope Benedict said he was deeply saddened by Sin's death and praised "Cardinal Sin's unfailing commitment to the spread of the Gospel and to the promotion of the dignity, common good and national unity of the Philippine people."

"I join you in praying that God our merciful Father will grant him the reward of his labors," he said in a telegram.

The Pope's disappointment with modern Europe transpires in several sections of the book.

"Europe has developed a culture which excludes God from the public conscience in a way never before known to humanity ..." he writes.

Marcos's widow Imelda, who returned to the Philippines after her husband's death in 1989, attended mass and said the rosary prayer for Sin after hearing of his death, her spokeswoman said.

"With the death of Cardinal Sin, let us pray that all Filipinos will at last be united in spirit," she was quoted as saying.

At his retirement ceremony, Sin said his duty had been to "put Christ in politics."

"Politics without Christ is the greatest scourge of our nation," he said.

Some say Sin's legacy is mixed.

"Europe has developed a culture which excludes God from the public conscience in a way never before known to humanity ..." he writes.

The 2001 uprising has been portrayed by some as an unconstitutional power grab by the Church and political elite angry at Estrada's sweeping election win on a pro-poor agenda.

Analysts say the uprisings have left the Philippines with an unstable system in which politicians are quick to use the threat of "People Power" as a weapon against the incumbent president.

ome Italian politicians fear that the country's powerful Catholic Church will try to make capital of its victory in this month's fertility referendum and eventually try to overturn the country's abortion law.

"He was correct in taking the Church to tackle the issues of the day. But he got enamoured with power and became a power broker."

the last link is to a previous occassion I alluded to a book in a critical way but did not tell anyone to read it.