Vatican forgives Wilde his sins

During a recent trip to the UK, I picked up a copy of the
London Times, 9 October 2000, and read the headline Vatican forgives Wilde
his sins.

"The Vatican has rehabilitated Oscar Wilde on the eve of
the centenary of his death, praising the turn to spiritual values and "understanding
of God's love" that followed Wilde's imprisonment in Reading gaol, towards
the end of his life, for gross indecency.

Homosexuality is condemned in Roman Catholic doctrine. But
writing in La Civilta Cattolica, a Vatican backed Jesuit quarterly
founded in 1850, Father Antonio Spadaro said that Wilde, who made a deathbed
conversion to Catholicism, had seen into the depths of his own soul after a
lifetime of "degradation, vanity and frivolity"...

Wilde was noted for cynical aphorisms such as "there is
no sin except stupidity"...

But he had come to see that God does not "expel sinners
from his care" but is capable of "breaking hearts of stone and entering into
them with mercy and forgiveness."..." End Quote.

There is no doubt that this man Wilde had a wretched
reputation in his day, and yet the mercy of God is limitless. It would have been
nice had the article said that he had turned in repentance towards the Lord, and
asked Jesus to cleanse him with His precious blood, but instead he turned to
Catholicism, which is not really one and the same thing.

To any who are struggling with sin and the desire for
forgiveness we recommend a careful reading of the following two verses.

1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all righteousness."

1 John 1:7, "If we walk in the light, as he is in the
light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his
son cleanses us from all sin."

There is no doubt that there is salvation found in no other
but in God's son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Please turn to Him in prayer at this
moment and submit yourself into His mercy and care, and a born again experience.

In the mean time we will leave Mr Wilde to the grace and
the mercy of God.