TƯỞNG-NIỆM
CỐ GIÁO-HOÀNG GIOAN PHAOLỒ II
Ngày 02 tháng 4 năm nay, 2006, là ngày “húy-nhật” đầu tiên của cố Giáo-Hoàng Gioan PhaoLồ II.
Giáo-Hoàng Gioan PhaoLồ II được xem là một vĩ-nhân của thời-đại.
Trong thời-gian Ngài còn sống, một trong các việc làm đầy ý nghĩa nhất của Ngài là Ngài đã trung-thực, can-đảm, và thẳng-thắn công-khai nhìn-nhận các tội-lỗi mà Giáo-Hội Ky-Tô-Giáo La-Mã đã phạm phải từ trước đến nay.
Liên-quan đến điểm này, Thanh-Thanh có làm một bài thơ bằng tiếng Anh như sau:
LAUD TO POPE JOHN PAUL II
On 03-12-2000, Pope John Paul II apologized
for all the Vatican’s mistakes in the past.
The first version of this poem had been published in
"Who's Who in New Poets" (New York, USA, 1996).
I laud you for most of the other moral systems detecting
And for anything true and holy in them not rejecting –
Those Asian Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist religions,
And Australian hundreds-of-centuries-old native traditions.
I commend you on admitting your predecessors misapprehended
The earth’s form and position for which Galileo contended.
To deny the roundness and movement of the globe, in error
The Inquisition persecuted the physicist, inflicted terror!
I praise you for acknowledging that, without lenience,
In order to liberate Jerusalem from Islamic obedience,
They fostered crusades in the European Catholics’name;
But they had recourse to violence – unworthy of fame!
I respect you for apologizing, to many a Latin nation,
For Spanish past roles in South-America Evangelization.
Delegated by the Church, Spain took advantage of the situation
To practice cruelly massacre, tyranny, and exploitation!
I admire you for testifying your anterior ones’ lack of sanity
While love of one another is the Bible’s thesis of humanity.
They considered the black-skinned race as of lowest grade;
And they tolerated, and even encouraged, slave trade!
I sympathize with your feeling about World War II a sharp pain:
The Vatican’s cooperation with the Nazis – a dark stain!
I acclaim your recognition of the processes of Evolution:
Such reasoning beyond Creation is quite a revolution!
I extol you rectifying the doctrine of the Virgin Mary:
Whether body and soul into heavenly glory it does vary.
To inherit sin – before that conception – she was bound;
To exclude her from natural death, there is no ground.
I comprehend your part in seeking Poland’s regime to replace:
Because you are a Polish above and first of any other race.
I agree with you that though you tell people not to fear,
You still must use bulletproof protection in public to appear.
I love your getting prepared for the century twenty-first:
All predictions of the near end only mean a frenzy burst!
I’m sorry for you yielding to the Vietnamese protestation
Of their own country’s prelacy against your ordination!
I thank you for teaching Christians to repent of their sin
Committed in the past by certain Pontiffs and their kin.
Such lucidity, justice, and courage, of a man capable,
Lets me believe that you - the Pope - is not mistakable!
THANH-THANH
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