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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Jul-04
Pope John Paul apologizes for 1204 sacking of Constantinople

Web Log - July, 2004

Pope John Paul apologizes for 1204 sacking of Constantinople

People laugh at stuff like this, but it's a really big deal.


The Patriarch of Constantinople visits Vatican
The Patriarch of Constantinople visits Vatican

My mother, a devout Greek Orthodox, always loved the Catholics, but she always made it clear that we were better, and she expressed particular anger at this event. In 1204, a new Catholic Crusade was heading out to recapture Jerusalem back again from the Muslim Turks. Along the way, the Catholic army sacked Constantinople, starving and murdering its citizens, and plundered the Orthodox Church's treasures accumulated over the centuries.

The deed was capped by placing a prostitute on the Emperor's throne at the church of St. Sophia, at that time the most beautiful church in Christendom.

In studying Generational Dynamics, I've learned what might be called "the biggest lesson of history": That people never remember the atrocities that they commit against other people, but they never forget the atrocities that other people commit against them.

Every tribe, society and nation commits atrocities during crisis wars and forgets about them later. The Pope has broken the mold in recent years by actually remembering Catholic atrocities and apologizing for them. This apology took place in Constantinople (Istanbul). In 2001, in a visit to Athens where he encounted large anti-Catholic protests, the Pope apologized to the Greeks for the same incident. And in a visit to France in 1997, he made a plea for forgiveness and reconciliation for the slaughter of Protestant Huguenots in the St. Bartholomew's Night Massacre in 1572.

The fact that people remember these things for centuries is one of the reasons why wars repeat themselves, time after time. Desire for revenge is as much a part of being human as a desire for sex. The Pope's apologies, which are almost unique in history, are a reflection of his desire that he's not going to allow a war to occur on his watch for lack of saying, "I'm sorry." (13-Jul-04) Permanent Link
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