Posted on 04/11/2009 5:53:29 AM PDT by Scanian
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.
'Christ must be weeping for them,' he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
He is right again!!
The more man has advanced technologically, the more empowered he (or she) feels. The arrogance leads to an impossible self created mind set. People think that they are gods in and of themselves. Very twisted, completely impossible, but prevalent none the less.
Ping
He should start setting the example of not accepting Godlessness by not letting Obama give his speech at Notre Dame. Actions speak louder than words.
Agreed. If the Vatican can reject Zer0’s pro-abortion ambassadors, they can tell ND to refuse entry to President Infanticide.
Marking
The pope can reject an ambassador because the ambassador is sent to HIM. The pope is less likely to deal with a problem in America because that is left to the American bishops. He might do something, but it is doubtful. This is a problem for Catholics in America. We should be able to solve it on our own. That’s the principle of subsidiarity and the pope believes in it strongly.
Not a chance. This pope, like the last one, has more important fish to fry. If Notre Dame’s administration wants to engage in the newest dhimmitude, it embarrasses itself, not the religion it purports to teach or, in its own academic jargon, to “model.” The alums could make short work of this comedy if they had the will.
The U.S. version of the “desert of godlessness” = the DNC.
Howard Stern mocks Priests, The Church, and directly, Jesus Christ. Daily.
His show is the “desert of godlessness”
At times I think the Vatican II has moved the Church towards modern Liberalism. My mothers generation grew up with such reverence for all things Holy and now after Vatican II they try to move away from these things and act more like other christian denominations.
It seems to me the Church has the same battle within that our country has, one part is conservative and the other half liberal.
Ain’t that the truth. No believer could stand being around that crowd for more than 5 minutes. Baby-killing, atheistic trash.
Americans SHOULD be able to find a solution but Notre Dame has such an important image among US Catholics and society in general that some special attention seems warranted.
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made. The serpent asked the woman, "Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?"The woman answered the serpent: "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'"
But the serpent said to the woman: "You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad."
Genesis 3:1-5
There is indeed wisdom in that tome. Universal and ageless.
Note:
The Rev. John D'Arcy is Bishop of Ft. Wayne/South Bend.
Pope Benedict XVI is the Bishop of Rome.
Neither the Pope nor Bishop D'Arcy "own" or "run" or "make policy for" the University of Notre Dame. It is a separately-incorporated legal entity run by a Board of Trustees. Some, but not all of whom, are priests and members of the Congregation of the Holy Cross.
In that sense, the Pope doesn't run Notre Dame any more than he runs Harvard.
My own opinion is that lay people have a responsibility here, and that is to make the Obama commencement protest so loud, the situation so embarrassing, and the political cost so high, that neither Notre Dame nor Obama will try to pull off this kind of stunt ever again.
Pope is exactly right.
Too bad he is not a younger man. Then he could say courageous and wise things like this for thirty more years.
You’re right about Stern. He says horrible things about Christians and their leaders. He and his stripper guests relentlessly undermine the core values of a strong civilization — marriage, faithfulness, sexual purity.
Thanks to influential moral philosophers like Stern, America has an out-of-wedlock rate of nearly 40 percent. Lots of budding criminals growing up in single parent homes.
But Stern doesn’t care. He styles himself as a brave rebel on satellite radio while making millions off immature, hormone-driven young listeners.
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