Pope warns of 'a desert of godlessness' in Good Friday address

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Pope Benedict XVI last night attacked the rise of aggressive secularism in Western societies, warning them that they risked drifting into a 'desert of godlessness'.

He used his Good Friday meditations to compare deliberate attempts to remove religion from public life to the mockery of Jesus Christ by the mob as he was led out to be crucified.

'Religious sentiments' were increasingly ranked among the 'unwelcome leftovers of antiquity' and 'held up to scorn and ridicule', he added.

'We are shocked to see to what levels of brutality human beings can sink,' said the Pope at an evening ceremony at the Coliseum in Rome.

'Jesus is humiliated in new ways even today when things that are most holy and profound in the faith are being trivialised, the sense of the sacred is allowed to erode.

'Values and norms that held societies together and drew people to higher ideals are laughed at and thrown overboard. Jesus continues to be ridiculed.'

The German-born Pope, who turns 82 later this month, prayed Christians would respond by growing in faith.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/...ay-address.html

[Niels Bohr 72]

Pope Benedict XVI last night attacked the rise of aggressive secularism in Western societies, warning them that they risked drifting into a 'desert of godlessness'.

I am god.

[jundp 191]

Well, he's not wrong this time.

[dalegg 143]

It is true though. Church attendance has been steadily on the decline. Nothing he can do about it really. He isn't going to shame people into believing in God or going to church.

[mr and mrs 187]

he seems to think a godless desert would be a bad thing? <puzzled>

ps atheists and agnostics are on the rise!

Christians are now making up a declining percentage of the American population.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey that got Mohler's attention, the percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 percentage points since 1990, from 86 to 76 percent. The Jewish population is 1.2 percent; the Muslim, 0.6 percent. A separate Pew Forum poll echoed the ARIS finding, reporting that the percentage of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith has doubled in recent years, to 16 percent; in terms of voting, this group grew from 5 percent in 1988 to 12 percent in 2008—roughly the same percentage of the electorate as African-Americans. (Seventy-five percent of unaffiliated voters chose Barack Obama, a Christian.) Meanwhile, the number of people willing to describe themselves as atheist or agnostic has increased about fourfold from 1990 to 2009, from 1 million to about 3.6 million. (That is about double the number of, say, Episcopalians in the United States.)

from

newsweek

[NickD 203]

Ron Howard is going to be another headache to the pope with his new movie, Angels and Demons on how the church dealt with the Illuminati. Basically how the church treated 16th century scientist with such nonsense about the earth rotating around the sun, etc.

What the church does have is 2000 years of art and tradition, was a turn off for me when buying art was more important than people. The tradition instead of being leaders in the way things are has always been trailing and justifying. Scandal was also a key issue with the church, with mass attempts to hide it rather than admit. So one can only question, is this the truth?

Attacking in my opinion is a very poor way to handle this situation, only making matters worse for the church and claiming they have the power to send one straight to hell with art showing how terrible it is. It gets old after awhile and one would expect the church to set the example like the founder did. Way too much corruption in the church, that is not a very good example.

[fozzie 41]

The church needs to adapt to the changing society. They will not bring back the "good old days". However if they change they will prove that it is all BS. ooooh...tough call.

[Danno 1,228]

The church needs to adapt to the changing society. They will not bring back the "good old days". However if they change they will prove that it is all BS. ooooh...tough call.

If you knew basic info about the RCC you would know about the huge change which took place some 40 years ago, many agree this was a huge mistake.

Trying to "reach the world" by being "like the world" was an interesting failure.

From what little I know, I can assure you this Pope will not revisit that same mistake.

[fozzie 41]

The church needs to adapt to the changing society. They will not bring back the "good old days". However if they change they will prove that it is all BS. ooooh...tough call.

If you knew basic info about the RCC you would know about the huge change which took place some 40 years ago, many agree this was a huge mistake.

Trying to "reach the world" by being "like the world" was an interesting failure.

From what little I know, I can assure you this Pope will not revisit that same mistake.

Thats my point, they are in a pickle. To win people back to the church they either change, which will do more damage to their credibility, or there is an apocalypse! In which case we'll all be dead. It will take something of epic proportions to turn people back to the church.

[NickD 203]

The church needs to adapt to the changing society. They will not bring back the "good old days". However if they change they will prove that it is all BS. ooooh...tough call.

If you knew basic info about the RCC you would know about the huge change which took place some 40 years ago, many agree this was a huge mistake.

Trying to "reach the world" by being "like the world" was an interesting failure.

From what little I know, I can assure you this Pope will not revisit that same mistake.

Thats my point, they are in a pickle. To win people back to the church they either change, which will do more damage to their credibility, or there is an apocalypse! In which case we'll all be dead. It will take something of epic proportions to turn people back to the church.

God could do it, if there is a God. Keep on hearing from people of all denominations, that man is the problem, so exactly who is making all of these laws and rules?

[Bobby+Umit 161]

Ah, the power of the FSM,

"Welcome to his noodleness"

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Pope Benedict XVI last night attacked the rise of aggressive secularism in Western societies, warning them that they risked drifting into a 'desert of godlessness'.

He used his Good Friday meditations to compare deliberate attempts to remove religion from public life to the mockery of Jesus Christ by the mob as he was led out to be crucified.

'Religious sentiments' were increasingly ranked among the 'unwelcome leftovers of antiquity' and 'held up to scorn and ridicule', he added.

'We are shocked to see to what levels of brutality human beings can sink,' said the Pope at an evening ceremony at the Coliseum in Rome.

'Jesus is humiliated in new ways even today when things that are most holy and profound in the faith are being trivialised, the sense of the sacred is allowed to erode.

'Values and norms that held societies together and drew people to higher ideals are laughed at and thrown overboard. Jesus continues to be ridiculed.'

The German-born Pope, who turns 82 later this month, prayed Christians would respond by growing in faith.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/...ay-address.html

Palpatine... I mean Ratzinger needs to chill. Really. A church that continues to advocate different rights for women and others; who refuses to grow and evolve, and who claims ownership of god is, how can I say this... fvcked.

"Jesus continues to be ridiculed" ---- yep, with representatives such as the hideous Congregation for the Faith and equally rabid MoFos who pervert what Jesus the man said, of course.