Pope singles out 'faithless' Australia

Pope singles out 'faithless' Australia

THE Pope has issued a dire warning about the state of religion in Australia, saying mainstream Christianity is dying more quickly here than in any other country.

In remarks to priests in Italy, Pope Benedict spoke of a crisis for the main Christian churches as people in the Western world felt self-sufficient, with less need for Christ and Christianity.

"Certainly this is a suffering linked to the present historical moment in which generally one sees that the so-called mainstream churches appear moribund," he said. "This is so in Australia above all and also in Europe but not so much in the United States." He said the Catholic Church was not as badly off as the mainstream Protestant churches, which were in a "profound crisis" because of sects.

Many people felt Christianity was antiquated, he said. But it actually represented the future because it responded to socio-ethical problems that could not be handled by an approach based solely on a scientific mentality.

I see this as a positive. That Australians in general are independent thinkers.

I agree, every AUS I've talked to has been kew as well



oh noes i r pope!

if only the pope had an army to control right? :p

Well, the Oceanic division of the Popes army appears to be going AWOL.

Originally posted by cargo
I see this as a positive. That Australians in general are independent thinkers.

One has to wonder where all the crime is down under. According to monotheists, morality comes from faith. Perhaps the Aussies are too busy with carnal pleasures to bother with killing everyone.

Surely, once they have enough of the pleasures, they'll get on with all the child sacrifice, murder, theft, mayhem, and overall naughtiness the monotheists claim will happen.

The Pope is simply saying that Christianity appears to be on the decline. So in other words, his message to Priests in that area is to step up business. There is nothing wrong in any religion looking to expand and to provide services and information to those that may still be seeking religion. It does not have to mean to go out and shove religion down anyones throat. Now you will have extremist that will but they are not the point.

Faith and morality do not always seem to go hand and hand. For those who attend a church I am sure you have seen the faithful walk out the door and proceed to flip off another church goer in the parking lot etc.

Originally posted by spamandham
Religion is a religion. I don't have enough faith to believe in religion.

The obvious contradiction made me chuckle.

Yeah, on this subject depending on the day of the week religious sales agents are always convinced either they're about to take over the world or their beliefs have one foot in the grave. Depends on the audience.

The little country churches near me have a running theme that this is the last generation of faith and one Baptist church in particular I've had the displeasure of attending has been calling on it's teens to marry and breed to save the church. No kidding.

That's the closest I ever came (as an adult) to disrupting a church service with a rebuttal. This lunatic was saying things like college will change you for the worse. Don't put off marriage, don't put off family. Don't put the church on hold while you go "sample" the secular world. Cause you may never find your way back.

Fine. I get that. But don't parent the congregation's kids to not go to college or get the heck out of smallville if they can. And especially don't tell them to start breeding to fill the pews. That's just messed up. That's the Catholics schtick.

America should be around as long as Europe to be so wise. Religious growing pains. All infant nations go through it. May "the last generation of faith" rest in peace.

Originally posted by spamandham

Originally posted by cargo
I see this as a positive. That Australians in general are independent thinkers.

One has to wonder where all the crime is down under. According to monotheists, morality comes from faith. Perhaps the Aussies are too busy with carnal pleasures to bother with killing everyone.

Surely, once they have enough of the pleasures, they'll get on with all the child sacrifice, murder, theft, mayhem, and overall naughtiness the monotheists claim will happen.

We're gettin' there, we're gettin' there. It's just that these things have got to be planned properly and there's so much beer to drink first...:w:

I'd suggest the Pope should look at America first, after all, they've got a lot of faith, but in what?

And anyway, I like being a Prod, look at all the cool things my church says I can do just to annoy Catholics...

Originally posted by cargo

THE Pope has issued a dire warning about the state of religion in Australia, saying mainstream Christianity is dying more quickly here than in any other country.

Oh no. Aussies believe in practicing safe sex and contraception, embracing multicultralism and scientific progress, and we are against protecting pedophiles.. especially within religion. This must be stopped!

..he can kiss our communal arses.

[edit on 23-8-2005 by riley]

Originally posted by RANT
This lunatic was saying things like college will change you
for the worse. Don't put off marriage, don't put off family.....

Awwwwwwwww geeeeeeze! Great! Thanks alot! Now I'm
having flashbacks of when I lived in Alabama!
Heard all that and more!