Pope Benedict XVI has expressed his hopes that a visit to Cologne he is about to make will help Europeans renew their faith in the Roman Catholic Church.
The Pope said in advance of his attendance at the the World Youth Day event in his native Germany that many Europeans mistakenly believed that the Church stood for a set of outmoded rules, when in fact membership in the faith was like having a set of wings.
Europe has experienced a long-term trend toward secularization, with many of its citizens leaving Christian churches in particular. By contrast, citizens in other areas of the world, such as the United States, Asia, and the Middle East, remain strongly religious and in some cases have become more fervent in their personal commitment to faith.
For more information, read this source article updated over the weekend at the BBC website.
Comment: The greatest mistake of mankind is to believe that there can be nothing greater than our own species. There is very little that can be said to prove the existence of God, at least that has not been said before. It is my position that God can only be apprehended by faith.
Yet much of what passes for faith today is exactly the preoccupation with rules that Benedict XVI has criticized.
God lives in mankind only if mankind believes in Him. God is not an intruder in our daily lives, and He will not cause miracles to occur to us if we fail to appreciate the sacred in the mundane. Thus, to be faithful must be to be uplifted -- there is no alternative. As Europeans ponder the consequences of pure secularism, it remains to be seen whether they will seek comfort in beliefs about God, or consign God to a place where He is no longer visible.
The jury is still very much out.
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