Pope Benedict XVI's Good Friday Address

Pope warns of 'a desert of godlessness' in Good Friday address
By Daily Mail ReporterLast updated at 2:13 AM on 11th April 2009


Good Friday address: Pope Benedict warned that religious sentiments are increasingly being held up to ridicule in the West

Pope Benedict XVI last night attacked the rise of aggressive secularism in Western societies, warning them that they risked drifting into a 'desert of godlessness'.

He used his Good Friday meditations to compare deliberate attempts to remove religion from public life to the mockery of Jesus Christ by the mob as he was led out to be crucified.
'Religious sentiments' were increasingly ranked among the 'unwelcome leftovers of antiquity' and 'held up to scorn and ridicule', he added.

'We are shocked to see to what levels of brutality human beings can sink,' said the Pope at an evening ceremony at the Coliseum in Rome.

'Jesus is humiliated in new ways even today when things that are most holy and profound in the faith are being trivialised, the sense of the sacred is allowed to erode.

'Values and norms that held societies together and drew people to higher ideals are laughed at and thrown overboard. Jesus continues to be ridiculed.'

The German-born Pope, who turns 82 later this month, prayed Christians would respond by growing in faith.

'May we never question or mock serious things in life like a cynic,' he added. He also condemned the oppression of women, saying there were 'many societies in the world where women fail to receive a fair deal.'

'Christ must be weeping for them,' he said.

We watched the movie "The Miracle Worker" as a family, after attending a Stations of the Cross yesterday between 12 and 3. I recommend this movie to anyone, kids or not - it is a beautiful and artistic depiction of the life of Christ using claymation and animation.

My 7 y.o. asked "Why did Jesus want to kill Himself?" after the scene where Jesus told Judas to "go do what you have to do." I love when kids ask questions!

Jesus was mocked and ridiculed. The world did not know Him. So should it know us? I do not rejoice in suffering, but see it as a great opportunity to live in and with Him if we accept it in His grace. As President Obama says that our land is no longer Christian, we are truly challenged to like never before to be Christian! We were able to be complacent when Ronald Reagan counted Pope John Paul II as one of his closest friends. And we were able to be complacent when George W. Bush told us that he read the bible daily.

The time for complacency has ended.

Jesus did not want to die. HE DID NOT WANT TO DIE. But He died. And look what happened! Maybe it's our time to die in Him.

God's will be done!