Pope Benedict XVI warned some 120,000 worshipers at a Mass here on Sunday of the dangers of a society without God, forging ahead with his fight against secularism on the second day of a three-day trip to the Czech Republic.

Later, in an address to Czech academics in Prague, the pope inveighed against the perils of relativism. He also underlined the need to mend “the breach between science and religion.”

Celebrating Mass in this southern city in the country’s Catholic heartland, the 82-year-old, German-born pope said that “history had demonstrated the absurdities to which man descends when he excludes God from the horizon of his choices and actions.” He added: “Your country, like other nations, is experiencing cultural conditions that often present a radical challenge to faith and therefore also to hope.”

While the pope received a warm and enthusiastic reception from the crowd — a large number of whom appeared to come from neighboring Poland, Germany and Slovakia — religious observers lamented that the Czech nation as a whole seemed unmoved.

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Filed under: * International News & Commentary • Europe • --Eastern Europe • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Pope Benedict XVI

1. Sick & Tired of Nuance wrote: “...the pope inveighed against the perils of relativism. He also underlined the need to mend ‘the breach between science and religion.’” I could not agree more!  The Reasons to Believe organization is, in my opinion, an excellent answer to that need.  Astronomers around the world are becoming more and more convinced that there must have been a creator.  http://www.reasons.org/ September 28, 9:27 am | [comment link]

2. teatime wrote: It saddens me that the Czech Republic has become so secular. My mother’s family was from Prague and they were so happy to be able to come to America, where they could practice their Catholic faith. It was very important to them. I would have thought that once the Communists’ stranglehold was off Czechoslovakia, the people would cherish their new freedoms. Sigh… September 28, 10:15 am | [comment link]

3. deaconjohn25 wrote: Leave it to the NY Times to find someone (a non-Catholic ) to cap off their article with an attack on the Catholic and Christian moral Tradition. They musn’t let up on their Leftist brainwashing function. According to the Times chosen interviewee the pope is apparently fighting Jesus Christ in upholding traditional marriage, the sacredness of human life, etc. Let’s just see who is here in another century or three—the Catholic Church—or the fast moldering NY Times. September 28, 7:31 pm | [comment link]

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