Posted on 09/30/2009 9:56:37 AM PDT by NYer
Berlin, Sept 29 (CTK) - Pope Benedict XVI has won great respect in the atheist Czech Republic, the German daily Die Welt wrote Tuesday commenting on the Pope's visit to the country on September 26-28.
Public Czech Television's (CT) cameras followed almost every move by Benedict XVI during his three-day visit to the Czech Republic, the daily says.
The Pope managed to raise enthusiasm among young people and he even won respect of Czech President Vaclav Klaus, Die Welt wrote.
"Judging by the space provided by Czech Television to the coverage of Benedict XVI's visit it could seem that the Pope visited a bastion of Catholicism in the past three days," Die Welt says.
"The head of the Catholic Church did not take any step in public without being broadcast live by CT. This was accompanied by debates with experts who tried to explain the Pope's masses and speeches," the Prague correspondent of Die Welt wrote.
However, the Pope paid his pastoral visit to one of the most secular countries in the world, it adds.
The paper points out that the Pope used his visit mainly to remember the fall of communism 20 years ago.
The Pope called on Czechs to rediscover Christian traditions which had formed their culture on the background of the religious freedom they have achieved, the daily says.
However, Benedict XVI did not only point to regained freedom but he also raised the question of what freedom actually means and said the fight for freedom should be connected with the search for truth.
"Even such purely liberal politician as Klaus could not deny respect to the Pope and he even admitted that he shares certain values with Benedict XVI," Die Welt wrote.
On the fringes of the visit, representatives of the state and the Church even expressed mutually accommodating positions in practical questions, which "people around Benedict XVI registered with a great satisfaction," the daily wrote.
The Bild.de server says the Pope's visit to the Czech Republic was also a visit to the past, back to his predecessor John Paul II.
"Because Prague was the first city of the former eastern block the Polish Pope visited after the fall of the Iron Curtain. For Benedict XVI it was an opportunity to again point to the Czech Republic's position at the crossroads of world history," the server says.
Ping!
Benedict, Benedict, X V I!! Yaayyyy!!
I know I had impeccable integrity when I was an atheist.
This non-believer has always been impressed by Der Rotweiler, even when he was still Joseph Ratzinger.
Among honest people, respect shouldn’t be contingent upon agreement or even being on the same side in an issue.
Maybe they will return to the Church! God bless Pope Benedict!
In my own humble opinion - I find many athiests have studied and considered their beliefs very carefully, are actually only a short step, and a little bit of grace, away from becoming true-Christians.
a skeptic with an open mind will test ideas until he finds the ring of truth (which granted is "grace," this "ring of truth"). He will beat all arguments up in search of it. That's the kind of person who loves it (and knows it) when he finds it.
“Pope Benedict XVI has won great respect in the atheist Czech Republic...”
Why is the Czech Republic being referred to as ‘the atheist Czech Republic?’ While I’m sure there are plenty of atheists there, there is now freedom of religion in the Czech Republic, and it’s no longer officially an atheist state as it once was as part of communist Czechoslovakia.
Sadly, communism has been replaced by secularism, the ugly sister of relativism. It may take generations to restore 'faith' to some of these formerly communist countries.
The Check nationalists tried to make protestantism the state religion. The result was to destroyed that faith.
Didn’t they kill all the Hussites long before?
This was after independence when they formed Czechoslovakia. They were liberals and so hated the Catholic Church.
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