Posted on 09/08/2007 7:00:51 AM PDT by RckyRaCoCo
MARIAZELL, Austria (AFP) — Pope Benedict XVI blasted Europeans for being selfish and not having enough children, in a sermon on Saturday at the 850-year-old pilgrimage site of Mariazell in Austria.
"Europe has become child-poor. We want everything for ourselves and place little trust in the future," the pope told a crowd of faithful from his canopied area at an open-air mass that took place under heavy rain.
But Benedict held out hope, saying: "The earth will be deprived of a future only when the forces of the human heart and of reason illuminated by the heart are extinguished . . . Where God is, there is the future."
The pontiff had slammed abortion upon arriving in Austria Friday as the "very opposite" of human rights.
"The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself," he told members of the government and the diplomatic corps at the Hofburg, the seat of the Austrian presidency in Vienna.
The pope also warned at the mass Saturday that science must be used for good if man is not to be threatened with destruction.
(Excerpt) Read more at afp.google.com ...
Ok - then why did you feel it necessary to point out the obvious?
What a tiresome, fallacious argument you are making, namely that because the pope doesn’t have children, he is not competent to speak on this issue. Your argument is analogous to saying that only married people can comment on adultery or only women can have opinions on abortion. Your whole argument is flawed and rather ridiculous.
I’m shocked at all of the anti-Catholic comments on this thread. Of course the Pope was talking to Catholics - we’re supposed to listen to him. Our Prot brothers and sisters have so such duty. He aims this at Christians, so this makes it even more scary to see the nastiness.
have so such duty. = have NO such duty
Made me laugh!
No, your obnoxious, anti-Catholic comment implied the fallacious argument that the pope has no right to chide Europeans for not having enough children because he doesn’t have children. It’s not easy to be a successful sophist, as you are demonstrating.
You have to remember that this got posted on the news forum and not the religion forum. This is how it used to be in the old days, and obviously is still today.
It’s one of the reasons I started posting the Daily Readings.
And it’s one of the reasons that the words “Catholic Caucus” even came into use.
It must be nice to be so flippant about everything. Perhaps you don’t think it’s a big deal that Europe is suffering from a birth dearth but the pope is right to point out that Europeans’ unwillingness to have children is demographic suicide.
The Pope wants us to build our defenses against Islam. The muzzies intent to conquer Eurabia by just ourbreeding the rest of the European population.
It has already happened.
It all began in the late 60’s, and by the 80’s the birth rates in Europe had declined to the extent that it became necessary to import a labor force from outside Europe.
As a consequence, while the birth rates dropped so low in the European population, the imported working class was reproducing on avergae of 6-8 children per family.
We are now in the 21st century -—2 generations removed from the beginning of this demographic shift.
And we have Eurabia.
You’re absolutely right. None of the Pope’s kids need to go to college in order to have full, happy, productive lives.
Birth, however, is a prerequisite.
Depends on who you ask.
0
Ahhhh...the ad hominem. The last refuge of the desperate bricklayer.
jas3
I calls ‘em as I’s sees ‘em.
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