The Pope Attacks Canada: Pope Cites Secularism in Canada Birth Rate

[Sportsdude]

Pope Cites Secularism in Canada Birth Rate [!-- END HEADLINE --] [DIV id=ynmain][!-- BEGIN STORY BODY --] [DIV id=storybody] [DIV class=storyhdr]  

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Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that low birth rates in Canada are the result of the "pervasive effects of secularism" and asked the country's bishops to counter the trend by preaching the truth of Christ.

 Benedict, who has spoken out several times in favor of large families, blamed Canada's low birth rate on social ills and moral ambiguities that result from secular ideology.

 "Like many countries ... Canada is today suffering from the pervasive effects of secularism," Benedict told visiting bishops from Canada. "One of the more dramatic symptoms of this mentality, clearly evident in your own region, is the plummeting birth rate."

 Canada's birth rate in 2005 was 10.5 births for every 1,000 people, according to Statistics Canada.

 "Canadians look to you to be men of hope, preaching and teaching with passion the splendor of the truth of Christ who dispels the darkness and illuminates the way to renew ecclesiastical and civic life," the pontiff told the bishops, speaking in English.

 Separately, Benedict told the new Spanish ambassador to the Holy See that family based on marriage should not be "replaced or confused" by other institutions — an allusion to gay marriage, which is legal in Spain.

 Benedict said he hoped his planned visit to Valencia, Spain, in July to attend a church gathering dedicated to families would give him "an opportunity to celebrate the beauty and fecundity of the family based on marriage, its very high calling and its essential social value."

 The pope has been leading a church campaign in defense of traditional families.

 He also reiterated church opposition to abortion and euthanasia.

 "The church proclaims without reserve the primordial right to life, from conception to natural death, the right to birth, to create and live in a family, without it being substituted or confused by other forms or different institutions," Benedict said, speaking in Spanish.

 Ambassador Francisco Vazquez Vazquez described the audience as "cordial and affectionate."

 Ties between the Holy See and Spain have been strained since Spain's Sotgwpdts took office in 2004 with an agenda that has included legalizing gay marriage and making it easier for Spaniards to obtain divorce in the traditionally Roman Catholic country.

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[Sportsdude]

 "Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that low birth rates in Canada are the result of the "pervasive effects of secularism" and asked the country's bishops to counter the trend by preaching the truth of Christ."

 Whatever. You only care about money and less church goers mean less money.

 

 "Like many countries ... Canada is today suffering from the pervasive effects of secularism," Benedict told visiting bishops from Canada. "One of the more dramatic symptoms of this mentality, clearly evident in your own region, is the plummeting birth rate."

 If your talking about Quebec then yeah its pretty low but its leveled out. They need to get there heads out of there asses when they talk about big families. Gone are the days of Jean Chretien and his 19 brother and sisters.

 

 When will catholics wake up to this mob boss.  Bully Pulpits do not work and it shows just look at world wide attendence figures.

[Gopher]

Benedict should open himself up to  a new source of light, the candles have burned long enough.

[TehBorken]

 Sportsdude wrote:
Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that low birth rates in Canada are the result of the "pervasive effects of secularism" and asked the country's bishops to counter the trend by preaching the truth of Christ.

Yeah, that'll do it.

[Sportsdude]

Gopher wrote:
 Benedict should open himself up to  a new source of light, the candles have burned long enough.[/DIV]
 Tell me about it Martin Luther is still waiting....

[Trollio]

 And people care about what the Pope (a celibate male who leads an archaic gaggle of celibate men and women who collectively do nothing for the birth rate) says because.......?  

[Sportsdude]

The Catholic Church is a mob organization.  They only care about birth rates because that means more butts in the seats which means more money coming in.  Church organizations are run too much like a business.  And I hate the up down structure of the catholic church, what a joke.  Some old man is suppose to tell you from right and wrong even thou he was a hitler youth member back in world war II.  Then he dissed German Lutherans saying they don't go to heaven back in the 80s.  Ratzinger is the epedemy of a mob boss if there ever was one.  Which is why I've moved away from organized religion as a whole.  The church left me I didn't loose them.

[Gopher]

Sportsdude, your last sentence exactly sums up my experience

[Sportsdude]

I think thats pretty standard everywhere the pope likes to say "secularism rules" (what a bunch of bs).  Like if you look at Europe for example church attendance is the single digits.  But the belief in God has never been higher.  So when I hear evangelical preachers down here talk about a 'Godless' Europe, I laugh. Again they are only looking at the business side of religion: church figures.  I believe in God but I don't go to church. Why? Because I don't want to hear something that is totally asinine. Although I must admit the reason I don't go to my church is that its 30 miles away, I get asked questions about my life too much since my dad is a leader there and since the church members are under 100 everyone knows everyone.

Now the churches I refuse to go to is the missouri synod churches which the rest of my family goes to.  Thats why I didn't go to Easter services.  Missouri Synod is anti women and anti anybody but them.  Last time I was in a church was for my great uncle's funeral and the Lutheran Missouri Synod pastor railed on Catholics at a FUNERAL!!! And the sick and twisted part was that my great uncles wife and three daughters HAPPEND TO BE CATHOLICS!!!!

[Gopher]

I think one of the worst things for me was that for years I felt guilty about my 'rebellion'. However, in the end I found an alternative, since when  I have 'lived happily ever after'.  

[Sportsdude]

What was your rebellion. Because before my faith hit the brick wall I was on the path of a Tommy Douglas like life.

[Gopher]

My rebellion was entirely internal - I used to go to church in the full knowledge that half the things that I 'had' to say there were spoken by my mouth and not my heart or soul: i.e. I constantly felt that I was using the words of others because it was the right thing to do, at the expense of saying what I really believed. It was a nightmare journey I can assure you.

[kitten]

I was given no choice until I left home.  When I did leave, I swore I would never go back.  The hypocrisy was to much to swallow.  There were too many questions in my mind, and no reasonable answers to them.  I prefer proof to blind acceptance.

[Dissident]

 kitten wrote:
I was given no choice until I left home.  When I did leave, I swore I would never go back.  The hypocrisy was to much to swallow.  There were too many questions in my mind, and no reasonable answers to them.  I prefer proof to blind acceptance.

My ex-husband was from Dublin and was educated by the Christian Brothers to believe that women were inherently evil and that their sole purpose on earth was to lead men astray.  Though he never darkened the door of a church unless someone died or got married he still believed this tripe.

A few years after I got divorced I drove all the way across the country to perform in a friend's wedding on the East Coast.  Thankfully I was up in the organ/choir loft where no one could see my open smirk and my eyes rolling as I watched some middle-aged celibate deliver a homily to the bride and groom about how to have a successful marriage . . .
 

[kitten]

I have often wondered how someone who is supposedly celibate would consider himself an authority on marriage.  Even more, I've wondered why people would believe such a man and consider him a reliable source of information.