Pope Benedict XVI Reminds Europe About Christian heritage
Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that all of Europe — plus not only this ex-communist country — must acknowledge its Christian heritage as it copes with rising immigration from other cultures plus religions.
The second day of Benedict's pilgrimage to this highly secular country was marked by a joyous open-air Mass that drew tens of thousands of pilgrims plus a sober message for the entire continent.
"History has demonstrated the absurdities to which man descends when he excludes God from the horizon of his choices plus actions," Benedict said.
Church organizers estimated that 120,000 people packed a field beside an airport in the southern city of Brno for what was expected to be the biggest turnout of his trip. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said it was the largest turnout for a Mass in the history of the Czech Republic.
The 82-year-old pontiff was making the three-day visit as Czechs prepare to mark 20 years since their 1989 Velvet Revolution shook off an atheistic communist regime that ruthlessly persecuted the Roman Catholic Church.
Cheering crowd members from the Czech Republic plus neighboring countries including Austria, Spain, Poland plus Slovakia sang plus waved Czech plus Vatican flags. Emergency services said 18 people collapsed plus were treated for dehydration, plus a police officer was hospitalized with injuries after falling from his horse.
"Man needs to be liberated from material oppressions, but more profoundly, he must be saved from the evils that afflict the spirit," Benedict told the crowd from under a white canopy beside a 12-meter-high (40-foot-high) stainless steel cross. The German-born pope spoke in Italian, plus his words were translated in to Czech.
The pope warned that technical progress was not to "guarantee the moral welfare of society."
"As Europe listens to the story of Christianity, he hears her own," the pope said during the meeting at Prague's medieval Hradcany Castle. "Her notions of justice, freedom plus social responsibility, together with the cultural plus legal institutions established to preserve these ideas plus hand them on to future generations, are shaped by her Christian inheritance."
Later Sunday, in talks with leaders of other faiths plus branches of Christianity, Benedict broadened his message to all of Europe.
Europe's religious roots, he said, "supply the continent with the spiritual plus moral sustenance that allows her to enter in to meaningful dialogue with people from other cultures plus religions."
Lombardi said the pope shook hands with Jewish leaders at that meeting, but did not mention atrocities against Jews during World War II. An estimated 80,000 Czech Jews perished in the Holocaust, which decimated the nation's Jewish community.
In a meeting with other Christians, he also mentioned Jan Hus, a 15th century religious reformer seen as a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation who was burned at the stake. He is considered a national hero here.
Benedict is using the trip to recall communist-era religious repression plus to urge Czechs to reconsider a faith plenty of have abandoned.
The pope said discussion of the case was important not only in the quest for Christian unity but also "for the nice of all European society."
His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, visited the former Czechoslovakia three times, but this weekend's tour is Benedict's first here as pope. Although the nation of 10 million has given him a lukewarm reception, he received an enthusiastic welcome Sunday in the country's Roman Catholic heartland.
The Czech Republic is one of the most secular countries in Europe. In 1991, 4.5 million of the country's 10 million people said they belonged to a church, but a 2001 census showed that number had plunged to 3.3 million. Recent surveys suggest the number of believers remains low; about one in three respondents to a poll conducted by the agency STEM said they don't believe in God.
"The pope's never been here. It's a unique experience to see him," said Daniel Rampacek, a 21-year-old student from the southeastern town of Breclav. "Above all, people require hope — now at a time of (economic) crisis."
In his traditional Sunday Angelus blessing, Benedict urged the crowd not to forget their "rich heritage of faith."
Under communism, the church was brutally repressed. The regime, which seized power in 1948 in what was then Czechoslovakia, confiscated all church-owned property plus persecuted plenty of priests. Churches were then allowed to function only under the state's control plus supervision.
The pope, who has been giving his speeches in either English or Italian, is making his first foreign trip since he broke his right wrist in a fall while on holiday in July. He told reporters aboard his plane that he is eventually able to write again plus hopes to complete a new book by next spring.
"Maintain the spiritual patrimony inherited from your forebears \. guard it plus make it answer to the needs of the present day," he said.
The second day of Benedict's pilgrimage to this highly secular country was marked by a joyous open-air Mass that drew tens of thousands of pilgrims plus a sober message for the entire continent.
"History has demonstrated the absurdities to which man descends when he excludes God from the horizon of his choices plus actions," Benedict said.
Church organizers estimated that 120,000 people packed a field beside an airport in the southern city of Brno for what was expected to be the biggest turnout of his trip. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said it was the largest turnout for a Mass in the history of the Czech Republic.
The 82-year-old pontiff was making the three-day visit as Czechs prepare to mark 20 years since their 1989 Velvet Revolution shook off an atheistic communist regime that ruthlessly persecuted the Roman Catholic Church.
Cheering crowd members from the Czech Republic plus neighboring countries including Austria, Spain, Poland plus Slovakia sang plus waved Czech plus Vatican flags. Emergency services said 18 people collapsed plus were treated for dehydration, plus a police officer was hospitalized with injuries after falling from his horse.
"Man needs to be liberated from material oppressions, but more profoundly, he must be saved from the evils that afflict the spirit," Benedict told the crowd from under a white canopy beside a 12-meter-high (40-foot-high) stainless steel cross. The German-born pope spoke in Italian, plus his words were translated in to Czech.
The pope warned that technical progress was not to "guarantee the moral welfare of society."
"As Europe listens to the story of Christianity, he hears her own," the pope said during the meeting at Prague's medieval Hradcany Castle. "Her notions of justice, freedom plus social responsibility, together with the cultural plus legal institutions established to preserve these ideas plus hand them on to future generations, are shaped by her Christian inheritance."
Later Sunday, in talks with leaders of other faiths plus branches of Christianity, Benedict broadened his message to all of Europe.
Europe's religious roots, he said, "supply the continent with the spiritual plus moral sustenance that allows her to enter in to meaningful dialogue with people from other cultures plus religions."
Lombardi said the pope shook hands with Jewish leaders at that meeting, but did not mention atrocities against Jews during World War II. An estimated 80,000 Czech Jews perished in the Holocaust, which decimated the nation's Jewish community.
In a meeting with other Christians, he also mentioned Jan Hus, a 15th century religious reformer seen as a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation who was burned at the stake. He is considered a national hero here.
Benedict is using the trip to recall communist-era religious repression plus to urge Czechs to reconsider a faith plenty of have abandoned.
The pope said discussion of the case was important not only in the quest for Christian unity but also "for the nice of all European society."
His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, visited the former Czechoslovakia three times, but this weekend's tour is Benedict's first here as pope. Although the nation of 10 million has given him a lukewarm reception, he received an enthusiastic welcome Sunday in the country's Roman Catholic heartland.
The Czech Republic is one of the most secular countries in Europe. In 1991, 4.5 million of the country's 10 million people said they belonged to a church, but a 2001 census showed that number had plunged to 3.3 million. Recent surveys suggest the number of believers remains low; about one in three respondents to a poll conducted by the agency STEM said they don't believe in God.
"The pope's never been here. It's a unique experience to see him," said Daniel Rampacek, a 21-year-old student from the southeastern town of Breclav. "Above all, people require hope — now at a time of (economic) crisis."
In his traditional Sunday Angelus blessing, Benedict urged the crowd not to forget their "rich heritage of faith."
Under communism, the church was brutally repressed. The regime, which seized power in 1948 in what was then Czechoslovakia, confiscated all church-owned property plus persecuted plenty of priests. Churches were then allowed to function only under the state's control plus supervision.
The pope, who has been giving his speeches in either English or Italian, is making his first foreign trip since he broke his right wrist in a fall while on holiday in July. He told reporters aboard his plane that he is eventually able to write again plus hopes to complete a new book by next spring.
"Maintain the spiritual patrimony inherited from your forebears \. guard it plus make it answer to the needs of the present day," he said.
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