Pope speaks against gays, abortion

[grammafreddy]

http://www.castanet.net/news/World/6509 ... s-abortion

Pope speaks against gays, abortion
by The Canadian Press - Story: 65095
Sep 24, 2011 / 6:17 pm


Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Pope Benedict XVI arrives at the cathedral in Freiburg, southern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011. Pope Benedict XVI is on a four-day official visit to his homeland Germany. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Benedict XVI has called for a common front with Orthodox Christians to defend traditional church values, warning of threats posed by abortion and gay marriage.

Facing discontent within his German flock, the pope said Saturday that religion must not be banished from public life and that Christian churches "are walking side by side" in the battle.

"They speak up jointly for the protection of human life from conception to natural death," he told a meeting of Orthodox Christians on the third day of a visit to his native Germany.

"Knowing, too, the value of family and marriage, we as Christians attach great importance to defending the integrity and the uniqueness of marriage between one man and one woman from any kind of misinterpretation," he said.

"Here the common engagement of Christians, including many Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Christians, makes a valuable contribution to building up a society equipped for the future."

The Vatican was undeterred by an incident earlier in the day in the eastern city of Erfurt on the edge of the security zone in which a man fired an air gun at a security guard about an hour before a papal Mass.

Benedict's spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said there was "no worry" in the papal entourage over the incident, and the pontiff was not informed about it before the Mass. "It didn't seem particularly urgent," he told reporters on the pope's plane after the Mass. Police said the alleged shooter had been arrested and that there were no injuries.

Police later identified the suspect as a 30-year-old Erfurt man who lived in Berlin. They said an air rifle and air pistol were found in his top-floor apartment, and that he was being held on suspicion of attempting to cause serious bodily harm.

In his homily in Erfurt, before a crowd of 30,000 people, the pope acknowledged that the collapse of communism in the former East Germany more than 20 years ago has allowed the church to function freely, but he questioned whether that change has brought any increase in faith.

"Are not the deep roots of faith and Christian life to be sought in something very different from social freedom?" the pope said. "It was actually amid the hardships of pressure from without that many committed Catholics remained faithful to Christ and to the church."

After the Mass, the pope flew to Freiburg, a city with a large Catholic population in southern Germany, the final stop of his visit, where about 25,000 people lined the streets, cheering and waving as he drove from the airport to visit the downtown cathedral.

At an evening prayer vigil on the city's outskirts, he urged more than 20,000 youth to overcome "a tendency toward evil," encompassing "selfishness, envy, aggression."

"Again and again in history, keen observers have pointed out that damage to the church comes not from opponents, but from uncommitted Christians," he said.

But the pope also encouraged the youth not to be frightened by the perpetual quest of being a good Christian.

"Dear friends, Christ is not so much interested in how often we stumble and fall in our life, as in how often we pick ourselves up again," Benedict said.

The pope's four-day state visit comes as Germany's church has been losing tens of thousands of followers amid revelations that hundreds of children and young people were abused by clergy and church employees.

On Friday night, he took a step to placate some of the anger by meeting for half an hour with two women and three men from parishes across Germany who were among the abused.

The Vatican said the pope expressed "deep compassion and regret" at the suffering of those who were abused and assured them the church is seeking "effective measures to protect children."

German church leaders acknowledge the scandal has cost them badly needed trust among the roughly 24 million German Catholics.

___

David Rising in Berlin, Melissa Eddy in Erfurt and Juergen Baetz in Freiburg contributed to this report.
The Canadian Press

Gotta protect his vast empire and wealth.

I am firmly convinced the Catholic Church, as it was originally conceived, was a hiding place for gays and lesbians and that's why they have to come out so strongly against it - so they can keep their homosexual tendencies and same-sex pedophilia hidden from public view.

And of course they would be against abortion and birth control - they need all good Catholic married male/female couples to have many children and to raise them within the confines of the church to keep their evil going forever.

[Oxl3y]

I had a brief glimmer of hope that this pope would bring positive change to the Catholic church when he made his short lived comments encouraging the use of condoms. Those were quickly struck down though as a misquote and now this little rant...oh well have fun with your bigotry and pedophilia maybe there will be some positive change with the next pope.

[Nebula]

He could announce a billion people believe in a fable. That would be positive.

[Tacklewasher]

The Pope should be irrelevant. That this is news is the crime.

[Bsuds]

Maybe he should speak out about pedophiles, he knows so many he should be an expert on them.

[fluffy]

Q: What did the Catholic priest say when he fell out of the boat?
A: "Throw me a boy."

[coffeeFreak]

lent.jpg

[Mr. Personality]

I am firmly convinced the Catholic Church, as it was originally conceived, was a hiding place for gays and lesbians and that's why they have to come out so strongly against it - so they can keep their homosexual tendencies and same-sex pedophilia hidden from public view.

Wasn't homosexuality rampant when the Catholic Church laid its roots?

[Bsuds]

Wasn't homosexuality rampant when the Catholic Church laid its roots?

It certainly was after.

[cliffy1]

When the pope announced in Africa, that those with AIDs still could not wear condoms, but had to abstain instead, my comment was: I hope he has the decency to wear a condom when he straps on an alter boy.

[grammafreddy]

When the pope announced in Africa, that those with AIDs still could not wear condoms, but had to abstain instead, my comment was: I hope he has the decency to wear a condom when he straps on an alter boy.