GERMANY: Pope fears faith is fading in the Western world

Western societies are losing their souls to scientific rationality and frightening believers in the developing world who still fear God, Pope Benedict told an open-air mass in Germany on Sunday (September 10) before preaching to the masses at Munich´s Dome in the evening. Benedict, on the second day of a visit to his native Bavaria, said that spreading the word of Jesus Christ was more important than all the emergency and development aid that rich churches like that in Germany gave to poor countries. He also stressed the role of faith in fighting AIDS "by realistically facing its deeper causes," indirectly confirming the Church view that pre-marital abstinence and fidelity in marriage are the way to combat sexually transmitted diseases. The Pope, 79, who has hinted the visit to his home region could be his last addressed the believers dressed in resplendent green and white vestments in the Dome of the Bavarian state capital where he served as archbishop from 1977 to 1982. During his six-day trip, Benedict will also visit his birthplace at Marktl am Inn, the shrine to the Virgin Mary at Altoetting and Regensburg, where he taught theology from 1969 to 1977. Police said the bright yellow house where the Pope was born in Marktl am Inn and which he was due to visit on Monday (September 11) was splashed overnight with two bags of blue paint by vandals. Local police said it was not clear who was responsible for the attack, which saw two bags of blue paint hit the bright yellow house in the town of Marktl just before 5 a.m. local time, but that a search for the perpetrator(s) was underway. Marktl residents were outraged, "It is just impossible. We heard it on the radio this morning and were absolutely distraught. Something like this must not happen. It is terrible and I got really upset" one woman said with tears in her eyes. Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI continued his visit to Munich, where he blessed pilgrims from the balcony of the Archbishopric. Munich itself welcomed Pope Benedict so warmly on his first visit to his native Bavaria since being elected last year that the shy 79-year-old has been smiling as broadly as a little boy on Christmas morning. Cheering crowds lined the streets as he drove into the city on Saturday. About 250,000 faithful packed his open-air mass on Sunday. Newspapers declared "Welcome home, Benedict" and local television has turned into a virtual papal channel. It wasn't always thus. With his forceful conservative views, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger made both friends and foes among Catholics in liberal Munich when he was archbishop here from 1977 to 1982. His role as the Vatican's chief doctrinal watchdog from 1982 until 2005 made him into such a target for criticism that the city declined to award him an honorary citizenship in 1997. The aborted award was an embarrassing memory for some in the city, which has always been more liberal than the traditionally pious Catholic countryside in the rest of Bavaria.

ITN Source | September 12, 2006

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