Posted on 08/14/2005 6:50:17 PM PDT by murphE
As homecomings go, the Pope's first foreign trip since he became leader of the world's one billion Roman Catholics will be bitter sweet.
About 500,000 young people will next week welcome Pope Benedict to the World Youth Day celebrations in Germany, a display of religious faith testifying to his Church's vigour.
But his return to the land of his birth will also be a confrontation between an austere enforcer of doctrinal orthodoxy and a country that embodies the secular, Godless culture he rails against.
According to his spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the four days the Pope will spend in Germany are a "very strong signal" of his desire for dialogue with young people. They also give him an ideal opportunity to elaborate on the concerns that agitated him when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
During a recent holiday he enlarged on these themes, describing Europe as teetering on the "edge of an abyss" because of its scorn for God and spiritual relativism.
"Europe has developed a culture that, in a manner unknown before now to humanity, excludes God from the public conscience," he said.
It is one thing for him to voice such sentiments in the safety of the Vatican, where he has been ensconced for almost 25 years. The trip to Germany will plunge him into the thick of the moral maelstrom.
The state of its moral health has been diagnosed most forcefully by a prominent Protestant and television journalist, Peter Hahne. His bestselling book, Let's Get Serious, derides Germany's "fun society".
"Pubs, cinemas and gyms are fuller than churches," he said, blaming everything from the drop in Germany's birth rate and the rise in drug use on its lack of moral fibre. "People no longer have any idea of the difference between good and evil."
The rest of Europe is little different. Across the continent many worry that religion is now little more than a fashion accessory. Only 15 per cent of Europeans attend a place of worship every week.
"Religion is simply one of a range of experiences in life, tacked on alongside hobby, sport, holiday and relationships," the German weekly, Die Zeit, reported recently.
Catholic prelates take a dim view of the moral standards of the members of their own Church too.
"The girls in St Peter's Square who cheer the Pope have the Pill in their pockets," Cardinal Karl Lehmann, the head of the Catholic church in Germany, said last month.
The country's temporal authorities set the tone for the rest of the nation. Between them, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his deputy, Joschka Fischer, have a staggering tally of eight marriages. The Pope next week will also meet Angela Merkel, a divorcee likely to be Germany's next chancellor and head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
As a result of her marital status, Cardinal Lehmann has suggested that the CDU should remove "Christian" from its name.
No one expects Pope Benedict's visit to have the same impact as John Paul II's first trip to Central America in 1979 which provoked religious fervour in the region.
And he can hardly aspire to becoming the symbol of national pride that his predecessor was in Poland.
Indeed, the number of pilgrims expected to descend on Cologne for the gathering has so far been a disappointment. Predictions of one million youngsters turning up have already been scaled down to a more realistic 500,000.
The imminent arrival back home of the first German pope for 482 years has provoked some excitement - but of a type that only highlights the country's priorities.
The interest is not in his message but, for example, his love of cats. Magazines offer him tips how to get rid of the dark circles beneath his eyes or suggest that more Germans should follow his example and invest in an exercise bicycle.
His clean-cut personal secretary from the Black Forest, Georg Gänswein, 48, has been nicknamed the "George Clooney of the Vatican".
Germans are encouraged to take pride in their Pope, but not because of the international kudos of providing a head of the Catholic church but because he is "trendy".
The man who frequently condemns "unbridled consumerism" did turn out on a recent break in the Alps in a quilted jacket, a £2,000 Cartier watch, Cartier glasses and a baseball cap and was complimented on his dress sense.
Good point. There's a apparent dichotomy in outward religiousity and belief. Just because the EU political culture wants to downplay Christianity isn't necessarily a reflection of the people. The way the people responded to the Pope's funeral was very encouraging. While they are enthusiastic about the Big Church, meaning the Vatican, they are not so about the routine aspects of going to mass. How to solve this, I don't know. But giving in to contemporary fads isn't the answer.
Lehmann is a cynic, Too much time in the arid environs of theology.
I was talking on another thread that the priorities of lifie seem to be skewed for many.
Remembering what I was taught at least,
God
Family
Country
Work
Other
P)raying that the world may come back and put their lives in order with God's plan.
Thanks for the post.
When friends, community, media and the common culture speak out relentlessly against what mom and dad preach, girls choose what they want -- that is, the easier, more fun way. Some actually convince themselves that by taking the pill they are preventing a later abortion. NOT having sex doesn't even seem to occur to them.
When the religous speak out against what is going on, that is, promiscuity, sex outside of marriage, they are villified for being sterile, out-of-touch old white men who are clueless.
The girls choose spiritual relativism, like moral relativism. It IS a plague. The girls with pills is only one symptom. The boys with condoms is another. Calling prostitutes "sex workers" and making pornography free and accessible are other markers of spiritual corruption and relativism.
Schools teach this; institutions pass out the condoms and prescribe the pills with impunity. This happens in this country. I guess it happens in Europe too.
The old white men at the Vatican are speaking out against the tide of evil that is spread throughout our faith under the guise of being modern...spiritual, moral relativism. Taking the high road, the path of virtue is just too hard for the armies of materially spoiled and spiritually bereft souls of our world.
Simply put, we are spoiled rotten and have forgotten from whom all our bounty comes.
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