Pope Urges Youths to Spurn MaterialismPope Benedict News, World NewsText SizeAAASYDNEY, Australia (July 20) — Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday a “spiritual desert” was spreading throughout the world and he challenged young people to shed the greed and cynicism of their time to create a new age of hope for humankind.Speaking at a Mass before some 350,000 Roman Catholic pilgrims and a likely television audience of millions more, Benedict wrapped up the church’s six-day World Youth Day festival. He urged the young people in his more than 1 billion-strong flock to be agents of change because “the world needs renewal.”The 81-year-old pope said it was up to a new generation of Christians to build a world in “which God’s gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished _ not rejected, feared as a threat and destroyed.”They must embrace the power of God “to let it break through the curse of our indifference, our spiritual weariness, our blind conformity to the spirit of this age,” he said.The aim was “a new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which deadens our souls and poisons our relationships,” he said.The Mass came a day after the pope made a forceful apology for the sexual abuse of children by Australia’s Roman Catholic clergy, keeping up efforts begun in the United States to publicly atone for what he called evil acts by priests.
Once again I will harp on the point Il Papa seems to be conveniently forgetting: The priests who did those “evil acts” were acting by recommendation of Benedict himself. HE RECOMMENDED SHUFFLING PEDOPHILES and deserves to be doing some blame-taking, on a personal level, because it was he, personally, who dictated the policy.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/apr/24/children.childprotection”I’m sorry the priests did what I told them to do” doesn’t cut it.
that nazi will never accept blame.as for rejecting materialism the vatican has enough wealth to feed every catholic child in latin america but you won’t see that happened.anyone who looks at the history of the catholic church and still supports it is either a hypocrite or a moron.
Bwahaha! have you ever seen the vatican? Gold, jewels, and priceless art everywhere. It looks like Liberace exploded inside.
Note something else interesting about this pope? He often warns about the rise of secularism, or the spreading “spirtual desert”. He seems consistently concerned about what sounds to me like good news.
Is the secular movement really gaining ground to the extent he fears? Cool.
“Remember that,” he added, “as the collection plates are being passed among you. Papa needs a new pair of red Italian leather shoes.”
hey timmy,
werent you just claiming in a recent thread that love is mysterious and supernatural and unexplainable by science? wrong! wrong! wrong!
http://richarddawkins.net/article,2886,The-brain-in-love,Helen-Fisher-TED
Alex…
Come now…you do know “love” is a myth and can’t be proven scientifically…
This poop drivels a lot of ambiguous babble, like a beauty pagent contestant.
alex,
Helen didn’t explain what love is, but rather how the brain reacts to it. She admitted that she did not know why a person is attracted to one person over another.
Cry4
Loved your analogy! Does he do the wave too?
HELL…er..I mean…heck yeah! Especially for the little ones!
She might not have explained what love is, just measured its effects, but others certainly have. It is neurochemistry-no magic, no mystery, just chemistry.
Evidence,
She does lay the evolutionary ground on why ‘love’ exists; it helps the individual to focus his/her sexual energy on a highly desirable partner. Makes perfect evolutionary sense.
So the pope says people should be less selfish? That’s funny, most religious people say they’re in it to get themselves to heaven (i.e. personal profit in the supposed afterlife). What an admirable sense of ethics!
I guess we atheists are the ones doing the oftentimes thankless work of making the world a better place (vaccines, technology, medicine, energy research, etc.) without any expectation for a big payday that lasts forever. Yet people think the pope has the moral high ground?
Perhaps if the pope wanted to contribute, he could liquidate the billions in artwork, gold, jewels, and investments that fund his business empire and donate it to the poor. At the very least he could tell the world’s poor to quit sending their money to him while their children go without food or education.
This guy lecturing us about greed and selfishness is about as credible as Benny Hinn doing the same. They’re just competitors in the same industry.
The pope lecturing about materialism is like the Koreans lecturing about animal rights.
… or Americans lecturing about freedom.