Wow! He should come over here, to the land of the free and the home of the believer. Odd, isn't it that our nation, founded on a clear separation of church and state, would be populated with more 'believers' than skeptics.
Further in the article, the NYT reports that the Pope came to the Czech Republic on a mission; Vatican officials said that he had chosen the Czech Republic for a mission central to his papacy: fomenting a continent-wide spiritual revolt against what Benedict labeled Saturday as “atheist ideology,” “hedonistic consumerism” and “a growing drift toward ethical and cultural relativism.”
Apparently, the Pope would rather have the Czechs 'believe' in some intangible, ethereal realm in the sky where The Man notes sins and doles out appropriate punishments. Surely, the average person living in that nation needs such a sky-watcher so that immorality does not break out widespread throughout the population.
The article notes the sordid history of the Czechs and 'their' church, including the amassing of great wealth and its support for the Austro-Hungarian emperors.
Ironically, the Pope "is expected to emphasize the moral imperative that the Continent rediscover its religious roots."
Moral imperative? On what 'authority?' I may ask. And, further, who set up the 'morality scenario' in the first place? Seems to me that the history of the continent of Europe has been littered with the bodies of those who had some religious imperative to kill others who 'believed' differently than they.
Lest I ignore those fairly-odd American evangelical fundamentalists, surely we don't want any part of their 'morality scenario' either. They and the Pope can continue to live in their spiritual realm of irrelevance and gee-whiz! Seems to me that the Czechs have the right idea about all of this church nonsense: ignore it.
