Pope Slams Modern Societies For Godlessness

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI warned Sunday that modern culture is pushing God out of people's lives, causing nations once rich in religious faith to lose their identities.

Benedict celebrated a Mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls to open a worldwide meeting of bishops on the relevance of the Bible for contemporary Catholics.

"Today, nations once rich in faith and vocations are losing their own identity, under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture," said Benedict, who has been pushing for religion to be given more room in society.

The meeting of 253 bishops, known as a synod of bishops, will run from Monday through Oct. 26. The Vatican said that despite Benedict's efforts to improve relations with Communist China, no bishops have come from the mainland, although there are prelates from Macau and Hong Kong.

"Surely they tried, I mean the Holy See tried but obviously they could not make agreement," Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen told AP Television News as he entered the basilica.

"Maybe the Holy See welcomes someone that they (the Chinese) would not allow," he said, adding that China might try to send a bishop who is not acceptable to the Holy See.

Chinese bishops have not been allowed to travel to similar meetings in the past.

Ties between the Vatican and China's communist government have long been strained. Beijing objects to the Vatican's tradition of having the pope name his own bishops, calling it interference in China.

China appoints bishops for the state-sanctioned Catholic church. In recent years, some of those bishops have received the Vatican's tacit approval.

Still, many of the country's estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state-approved church with bishops loyal to the pope.

A document prepared for the meeting rejects a fundamentalist approach to the Bible and said a key challenge was to clarify for the faithful the relationship of scripture to science. A rabbi will address the conference on Monday in what is believed to be the first time a Jew has participated in such a meeting.

Comments

[THORGODOFTHUNDER]

What's the matter Big Daddio? Is this cutting into your profits?

[imusintheevening]

That is about the size of it.

These charlatans saw this coming several hundred years ago when they gaoled Galileo!

Let's start taxing them into oblivion. Amen

[Myshkin57]

Yeah... they'd better start selling indulgences again. They effectively do now, but they need the pieces of paper to go along with it.

[melpol]

Lack of religious faith does not make a person or nation bad. Some of the most religious people or nations were evil. Spain during the persecutions and torture of Jews is a perfect example. That is why we must separate church and state.

[didimus]

Yes, and Benedict fears that the common sense of modernity is pushing religion aside. They are not merely two sides of the same coin, but antithetical forces at war with each other. The pope relies on sharp distinctions between sacred and profane that align with his understanding of human nature as fundamentally flawed and the world as a dangerous, threatening place. The church is the only safe locale then in the midst of the turbulent storm known as modernity. All people of good will must reject the principles of modern societies in order to be truly free. In my opinion, BXVI is more Lutheran than Catholic in this regard. Imagine that, our first Lutheran pope!

[imusintheevening]

You make a cogent argument, but I still prefer logic, reality and science.

[raymurt]

"Pope Slams Modern Societies For Godlessness"

That's cause there ain't one.

[Bub]

Pope Benedict: Democracy is a big mistake. People can't be trusted to do the right thing. Remember the good old days when Pope's and Bishops conferred legitimacy upon the heads of states of Europe? It can be like that again. Authoritarianism, it's a good thing. We'll enforce the morality that even we don't abide by. Let's start with outlawing abortion, and taking it from there.

[ThankGodforAtheists]

The faster we push, the better off we will be. They aren't losing their identity, they are gaining their freethinking abilities.

[HFR]

If only the Pope could burn a few of these heretics alive at the stake for their blasphemy, like they did in the good old religious dark ages. Back then the Pope was able to demand people believe the Earth was flat , it was irrefutable Biblical fact, remember, the original flat Earth society, you know the society Sarah-pax Appalling and a hundred million extremely ignorant Americans still believe in?

[cgran]

I guess the Pope has conveniently forgotten the last 2000 years of ungodliness, as brought to you by the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Inquisition II anyone?

[TheQuestion]

I see it more like religion is pushing common sense to the side.

[wadenelson1]

Did you read the article?

>A document prepared for the meeting rejects a fundamentalist approach to the Bible and said a key challenge was to clarify for the faithful the relationship of scripture to science.

to me that looks like HUGE progress, the exact opposite of "pushing common sense to the side"

[Krackonis]

The relationship between scripture and science has been discovered, as to why old science is still clinging to the big bang we have no idea, but look up Plasma Cosmology, and learn about mythology from science.

[buckbuck11]

Rejecting fundamentalism is nothing new in the Roman Catholic Church. Pius XII in 1943 issued an encyclical called Divino Afflante Spiritu which admitted modern scholarship to the interpretation of the scriptures.

Unfortunately, BXVI has used his considerable intellect to justify uber-orthodoxy and to stifle dissent, dialogue and diversity of opinion. He has set the Roman Church back nearly 200 years.

There are alternatives:
www.reformedcatholicchurch.org