Sigh. Pope Leo’s first sermon…

[CurlewKate]

“"A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society,"

I don’t know why I expected anything different. Maybe because he likes Wordle?

@BeNiceWhenItsFinished The irony is that for millennia, wars have been fought across the world, and millions have died because of religion, not the absence of it.

What religion was Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, the Armenians and Stalin?
I forget ?

I’m not Christian but don’t many atheists say a hell lot of worse about religion?

And he said ‘ lack of faith’. Maybe he means you can have faith in whatever you want as long as you have faith?

Yep ^

If someone is religious and is a world leader, what effect do you think their religion has on the way they treat others.

Hitler was a Christian.
Look at the religious wars of the last 1000 years.
Look at all the leaders, who have proclaimed to believe in God, who have committed awful atrocities and have led murderous regimes over the centuries. Where was their faith and morality?

Today, too, there are many settings in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman. This is true not only among non-believers but also among many baptized Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism.

His "lack of faith" comment appears to be directed at Christians. Unsurprising since he's the Pope, doing Catholic Mass.

It takes a very special person to translate it into atheists are evil. Between this and the Marxist Pope thing I haven't laughed as much at a thread in ages.

People are mental.🤣🤣🤣

You can read the sermon.

These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied. Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed.

A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society.

He is talking about religious faith.

Maybe you and I are reading this differently

Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure.

These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied. Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed.

A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society.

That's a bit of what he said. He followed it up with my quote above.

The sermon is linked on pg 8.

Yes, these are my thoughts too, but my point was that no one should be surprised about THE POPE linking faith with good morals.

This man should visit Ireland and ask who has inflicted more wounds on society, atheists, or the Catholic church?

@cakeorwine Hitler was a Christian

Maybe to start with but it seems it wore off.

During the beginning of his political career, Hitler publicly expressed favorable opinions towards traditional Christian ideals, but later deviated from them. Most historians describe his later posture as adversarial to organized Christianity and established Christian denominations.

Well, he’d be wrong, wouldn’t he.

Hitler was a Christian.

Hitler was a baptised Roman Catholic but he seemed to espouse during his reign of terror a sort of Nordic/Germanic pantheon thing, possibly a bit of Satanism thrown in.

Stalin trained as an Orthodox priest for a bit but dropped out.

Does not make either of them Christians.

🥱

If he wanted to make a point, then this is what my suggestion would be

"Many people are proud to say they have faith. They are proud to say they follow the teachings of Christ. But when one looks at their actions, they fall short. They have forgotten what Christ taught us. To look after our neighbours. To be kind to others. This is the message of Christ. This is the truth he spoke. To be a true Christian is to follow the teachings of Christ"

That would have been a simple message to get the message out to people who claim to be Christian to start acting like Christians.

Sounds OK to me. He is the head of the Catholic church so is bound to talk about faith. Anyone who doesn't share that faith, or have faith, can tune in to other things he may say in the future but I wouldn't have expected less from an initial speech.

Yes, ask Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the rest of the Confessing Church, let alone the Catholic opposition to the Nazi regime

God isn't a "sky wizard", as you put it.

Of course he's going to peddle religion, that's his job.

Given the history of the Catholic church, his words are ridiculous. He is in no position to lecture anyone on a neglect of mercy but bare faced hypocracy goes with the fancy robes.

Just ignore him.

This.

Not so many puritans around now. Extremist protestants aside. Many other forms of protestantism are very liberal now for those who prefer such things.

If you are secure in your atheism you shouldn't care what other people, including the pope, think or say about religion. Maybe you need to think more about why this bothers you enough to post about it.

I'm an atheist.

I find it quite odd that an atheist would give a shiny shit what the pope says.

No, he's a flying spaghetti monster.

He's saying it about people who don't have religion.

And he's a powerful world leader with 1.4 billion followers preaching this message to his followers that people who don't have religion are more likely to be responsible for appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of family and other wounds that affect our society"

It's not someone on a street corner saying this. It's the leader of the Catholic Church saying this to the 1.4 billion Catholics around the world.