Deseret News | Pope seeks more freedom for Catholics in Iran

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Pope seeks more freedom for Catholics in Iran

Sir | 10:03 a.m. Oct. 29, 2009

This request is legitimate only after you apologize for the inquisition that tortured thousands and acknowledge your role in religious bigotry over the centuries.

denniscav | 11:05 a.m. Oct. 29, 2009

There is a need to clearly define the needs and purposes that religious beliefs have played in the lives of most humans for thousands of years. If there cannot be found a less contentious substitute that will better unite, rather than than divide many of different faiths as they do today, then we at least will understand ourselves better than we do now and may even know ourselves for the very first time.

Anonymous | 1:44 p.m. Oct. 29, 2009

It's not the current Pope's place to apologize for something other Popes did.

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To 1:44 p.m. | 1:17 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

Pope John Paul II officially made apologies for over 100 wrongdoings of the Catholic Church, including Galileo, burnings at the stake, and silence during the Holocaust.

“An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.” — Pope John Paul II

re: To 1:44 p.m. | 8:41 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009

I know he did, and it's a very noble gesture, and I greatly admired Pope John Paul II. But the people who needed to apologize and repent for all those things are long gone. No one living today holds any guilt or responsibility for atrocities in the past. Individuals sin, not institutions. Neither Pope Benedict nor Pope John Paul II are responsible for the inquisition. Nobody today needs to apologize. The good these leaders do should be enough evidence that they are not the ruthless despots of centuries past.

I'm not Catholic, by the way.

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Associated Press

In this photo released by Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano Pope Benedict XVI, left, meets Iran's new ambassador to the Holy See Ali Akbar Naseri, at the Vatican, Thursday.