Pope warns of ‘deafness to God’

MUNICH – Pope Benedict XVI gave the first open-air mass of his visit to his native region of Germany yesterday and warned that the modern world was becoming “deaf” to God’s message.

A day after arriving in Bavaria, the pope led a mass for up to 250 000 people in Munich, the first of three he will take during his six-day pilgrimage to his southern German homeland. He told the predominantly German crowd in a field next to the city’s convention centre that there was a growing danger of a “hardness of hearing where God is concerned”.”This is something from which we particularly suffer in our own time.Put simply, we are no longer able to hear God – there are too many different frequencies filling our ears,” the pope said.”Along with this hardness of hearing or outright deafness where God is concerned, we naturally lose our ability to speak with him and to him.”The 79-year-old pontiff has said the visit to Bavaria is a trip down memory lane but it has the more serious purpose of attempting to arrest the decline of religious observance in Germany.More than 100 000 people are said to leave the German Catholic Church every year.In his sermon, the pope also criticised the Catholic Church in Germany for its reluctance to evangelise, saying that while it was always ready to help dioceses in Africa or eastern Europe to rebuild churches or embark on social projects, it seemed reluctant to seek converts to the Catholic faith.Bishops in those regions of the world had, the pope said, learned from experience that “evangelisation should be foremost, the God of Jesus Christ must be known, believed in and loved, and hearts must be converted if progress is to be made on social issues and reconciliation is to begin and if, for example, AIDS is to be combated by realistically facing its deeper causes”.His message went down well with the Bavarian faithful.Nampa-AFPHe told the predominantly German crowd in a field next to the city’s convention centre that there was a growing danger of a “hardness of hearing where God is concerned”.”This is something from which we particularly suffer in our own time.Put simply, we are no longer able to hear God – there are too many different frequencies filling our ears,” the pope said.”Along with this hardness of hearing or outright deafness where God is concerned, we naturally lose our ability to speak with him and to him.”The 79-year-old pontiff has said the visit to Bavaria is a trip down memory lane but it has the more serious purpose of attempting to arrest the decline of religious observance in Germany.More than 100 000 people are said to leave the German Catholic Church every year.In his sermon, the pope also criticised the Catholic Church in Germany for its reluctance to evangelise, saying that while it was always ready to help dioceses in Africa or eastern Europe to rebuild churches or embark on social projects, it seemed reluctant to seek converts to the Catholic faith.Bishops in those regions of the world had, the pope said, learned from experience that “evangelisation should be foremost, the God of Jesus Christ must be known, believed in and loved, and hearts must be converted if progress is to be made on social issues and reconciliation is to begin and if, for example, AIDS is to be combated by realistically facing its deeper causes”.His message went down well with the Bavarian faithful.Nampa-AFP