TheNoNamedOne
04-17-2008, 01:24 PM
What's a U.S. Catholic to do these days? Even their own leader half a world away is not happy with their independent pick and choose style, in addition to blaming U.S. society for bringing Catholicism and all religions down to the lowest denominator.
Pope says U.S. society can undermine Catholic faith (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080417/us_nm/pope_usa_secularism_dc)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pope Benedict tempered his praise for American religious tolerance on Wednesday with a warning that U.S. society can quietly undermine Catholicism by reducing all faiths to a lowest common denominator. ...
The "American brand of secularism," he said, "can subtly reduce religious belief to a lowest common denominator."
He also seems to feel that the tolerance of picking and choosing creates a "civil religion" but then that is superficiality.
The speech to nine U.S. cardinals and 350 bishops, his main opportunity to speak to leaders of his Church in America, revealed a deeper level of concern Benedict has about a superficial religiosity sometimes called "civil religion."
Er... ok. So U.S. Catholics should be uncivil? God forbid they give up their superficiality!
And...
The pope said part of the problem was that American Catholics had left the "ghetto" of Catholic culture that reinforced religious practice among the immigrant communities that long made up the bulk of the faithful.
Translation: Catholic Peers and extended family members are not always around to exert religious pressure to conform to their doctrines.
"The Church in America," Benedict said, "is faced with the challenge of recapturing the Catholic vision of reality and presenting it, in an engaging and imaginative way, to a society which markets any number of recipes for human fulfillment."
Reality? Imaginative way? Hmmm...
There really is Something About Mary (http://www.japanupdate.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2713&highlight=whore).
Pope says U.S. society can undermine Catholic faith (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080417/us_nm/pope_usa_secularism_dc)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pope Benedict tempered his praise for American religious tolerance on Wednesday with a warning that U.S. society can quietly undermine Catholicism by reducing all faiths to a lowest common denominator. ...
The "American brand of secularism," he said, "can subtly reduce religious belief to a lowest common denominator."
He also seems to feel that the tolerance of picking and choosing creates a "civil religion" but then that is superficiality.
The speech to nine U.S. cardinals and 350 bishops, his main opportunity to speak to leaders of his Church in America, revealed a deeper level of concern Benedict has about a superficial religiosity sometimes called "civil religion."
Er... ok. So U.S. Catholics should be uncivil? God forbid they give up their superficiality!
And...
The pope said part of the problem was that American Catholics had left the "ghetto" of Catholic culture that reinforced religious practice among the immigrant communities that long made up the bulk of the faithful.
Translation: Catholic Peers and extended family members are not always around to exert religious pressure to conform to their doctrines.
"The Church in America," Benedict said, "is faced with the challenge of recapturing the Catholic vision of reality and presenting it, in an engaging and imaginative way, to a society which markets any number of recipes for human fulfillment."
Reality? Imaginative way? Hmmm...
There really is Something About Mary (http://www.japanupdate.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2713&highlight=whore).