THE challenge for religious leaders in years to come is to tackle violence and terrorism committed in God’s name … and to reach out to people who have no faith.
That was the message brought yesterday by Pope Ratzinger to Assisi, the scene of a global inter-religious junket. There the Pope told a mishmash of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Taoists, Shintoists and Buddhists:
The cross is about love, not for crusades
Violence never again! War never again! Terrorism never again! In the name of God, may every religion bring upon Earth justice and peace, forgiveness and life, love.
In a major address at the start of the gathering, according to this report, Ratzinger begged forgiveness for his own church’s use of violence in the past.
As a Christian I want to say at this point: yes, it is true, in the course of history, force has also been used in the name of the Christian faith. We acknowledge it with great shame. But it is utterly clear that this was an abuse of the Christian faith, one that evidently contradicts its true nature.
Benedict said history had also shown that the denial of God could bring about:
A degree of violence that knows no bounds.
He said the concentration camps of World War Two revealed:
With utter clarity the consequences of God’s absence.
He is reported here as saying that the Nazi death camps clearly proved that:
The denial of God corrupts man, robs him of his criteria [for judging right and wrong] and leads him to violence.
Yesterday’s gathering included four people billed as “non-believers”. Agnostics, the Pope said, had been invited to represent people in the world who have no faith but are:
On the lookout for truth, searching for God.
He said such non-believers should not be confused with militant atheists, who, he said, live in the “false certainty” that there is no God.
Also present at Assisi was the Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the Secretary General of the World Council of Churches, who said here that the cross:
Is not for crusades but a sign of God’s love embracing everybody.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
October 28th, 2011 at 10:03 am
What a silly pope. He just doesn’t get it does he.
October 28th, 2011 at 10:08 am
The leader of the Cathar’s famously said “Kill them all, God will know his own”. There is no denial of God there.
Can you imagine what he would have done with Nuclear, Chemical and/or Biological weapons?
The only difference between him and Hitler or Stalin was that latter two were probably more restrained.
October 28th, 2011 at 10:45 am
“Violence never again! War never again! Terrorism never again!” Except when Jesus comes back, I mean.
BTW, why is that guy wearing my cheese grater on his head?
October 28th, 2011 at 10:59 am
He doesn’t even have a clue about atheism. I don’t live in the false certainty that there is no god, I just think it irrational to believe there is one. As soon as they show me evidence that their sky fairy is real I’ll start believing.
October 28th, 2011 at 11:01 am
Right on, your hollowness. Now sort out all the other crimes committed in the name of your invisible friend that occur on a daily basis.
October 28th, 2011 at 11:15 am
What a vile old git this singing rat is. Could you imagine someone with any less of a grip on spiritual principles? It wasn’t atheism that led to WW2 genocides, it was the Christian soldiers and German peoples disregard for the inherent humanity of those they conveniently stigmatized and ostracized. And then he goes on to do EXACTLY THAT to atheists who have a firm belief that god doesn’t exist. Dim wit.
October 28th, 2011 at 11:33 am
Dave McNerney. You could not be more wrong. The Cathars were a peaceful sect who didn’t believe in god. That is why the Catholic church slaughtered them.
October 28th, 2011 at 11:35 am
He’s very clever, because he is shrewdly focusing attention upon the physical violence engaged in by the Church in times past, which they don’t need to pursue today, when one could argue that psychological abuse is even more damaging. But they won’t be giving THAT up in a hurry!
For anyone who hasn’t already read it:
http://www.highstrangeness.tv/.....holics.php
October 28th, 2011 at 11:43 am
Thankfully I’m not agnostic, I’m an atheist and I’m not looking for any god (funny how they keep on getting lost and search parties have to be sent out looking for them).
October 28th, 2011 at 11:43 am
It was the papal legate who allegedly said “Kill them all” when the Cathars and their sympathizers were eventually slaughtered. Once again, the Holy See couldn’t have Christians thinking for themselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharism
Hands up all those who couldn’t possibly see the same thing happening all over again!
October 28th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Graham Martin-Royle: When I was a boy, the large evangelical Above Bar Church in Southampton was pastored by the well-known and very publicity-conscious Leith Samuel – a legend in his own mind. He was a prolific writer (as well as talker), and wrote a little booklet, published by the Inter-Varsity Fellowship, called “The Impossibilty of Agnosticism”. This was extremely popular in the world of academia while I was a student (just showing how gullible academics can be), and the argument went like this:
It is impossible to state emphatically that there is no god, as no one could possibly know that for sure, so one would have to say that one just didn’t know (agnosticism); but God has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ, and anyone who accepts Jesus as his personal saviour, and enters ino a relationship with him, will come to know God for himself.
Simple, isn’t it? You can read it all here:
http://withchrist.org/Impossib.....ticism.pdf
October 28th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
More in the same vein here:
http://evangelicaliberal.wordp.....sm-better/
October 28th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Hitler was NOT an atheist. He was a catholic who was convinced that in exterminating hebrews he was doing a favor to Jesus
October 28th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
“Violence never again” Ratzi conveniently forgetting the violence of child abuse committed by his priests.
Most non-believers would never claim with absolute certainty the non existence of god[s]I’m 99.9% certain that there are no gods because there is no evidence; I cannot claim 100% because I can’t prove that something that doesn’t exist, doesn’t. Yet the religious are certain that their mate in sky exists – with zero evidence to support this hypotheses.
October 28th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Two of my favorite quotes from Hitch;
“Ratzinger himself may be banal, but his whole career has the stench of evil-a clinging and systematic evil that is beyond the power of exorcism to dispel.” (Slate, 15/3/10)
“Mentally remove his papal vestments and imagine him in a suit, and Joseph Ratzinger becomes just a Bavarian bureaucrat who has failed in the only task he was ever set-that of damage control.” (Newsweek, 3/5/10)
It may be impossible to prove or disprove a god, but if any such thing exists, it will certainly not be the ogre that stalks the pages of the Old Testament. To believe the story of Jesus as it is written in the New Testament, is demonstrably naive.
October 28th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
I believe, with a very high level of certainty, that there are no fairies at the bottom of my garden, that Santa Claus, unicorns and hobbits don’t exist, and that all of the thousands of gods that humans have worshiped are actually figures of fantasy. Presumably, his hollowness doesn’t believe in these things either. Does that make his certainty false?
October 28th, 2011 at 2:07 pm
A thousand years ago, the doors would have been closed and every ‘wrong’-believer brutally killed, for everybody knows there is only one true religion, which is [insert your favourite here].
Like most people I may be on the lookout for something occasionally, usually my glasses, but searching for ‘god’ seems a waste of time, as I don’t know what one looks like, or what it’s for.
And as for ‘militant’ Atheists: don’t mention those Commies from the East. More of them were killed by Nazis with “Gott mit Uns” on their belt-buckle, than the other way around and I know the numbers are staggering.
October 28th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
I’m curious as to how someone who “is seeking doG” can be classified as agnostic. Surely the “seeking doG” means they already have decided that doG is “the answer” – now what was the question again?
Now that the Rattenfaenger has made this pseudo-apology, can we look forward to a similar statement from the muslims at the conference, addressing the centuries of muslim slaughter and conquest? I won’t hold my breath.
But re the crusades – well the ones to free the ‘holyland’- they were the response by christianity to the slaughter and murderous enslavement of christians and jews in the muslim conquest of Jerusalem – nothing to apologize for there!
October 28th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
There is a putrid sickness which surrounds Ratzinger and as I think Lady Macbeth (can’t be bothered to look it up) said not all the perfumes of Arabia will hide it.
October 28th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
“Violence never again! War never again! Terrorism never again!”
But the bible is packed with examples of god imploring his followers to indulge in all three of those things at the merest provocation.
The following link is a useful source of reference for those that can stomach the gratuitous sadism contained in Ratty’s beloved book of love and peace.
http://www.humanismbyjoe.com/Violence_and_God.htm
October 28th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Wonder if Ratzo’s considered the irony that the only place you see a Red Cross these days is flying over camps full of refugees from wars on the ‘wrong kind of Christian’ (ditto Red Crescent and ‘wrong kind of Muslim’).
October 28th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
@Sailor1031 – I think they still have to apologise for the wanton raping and pillaging the soldiers were blessed to carry out on their way to and from Jerusalem. These people were told all sins would be forgiven, including those carried out on their crusade, and as payment for their service they could do whatever the hell they liked to all the innocent people that got in their way, including taking their property, their bodies and their lives. The Christians also tended to kill the Jews on arrival anyway, and it’s a bit problematic to suggest they were merely liberating the place when they a) had a history of brutality to the Jews themselves and b) hadn’t been all that interested in the past 400 years.
Here, Ratzinger is once again spreading the enormous lie that Hitler was an atheist and atheism was the reason for World War Two. How many times has he been chastised for that? Yet still he continues, completely ignoring a reality that he was alive to witness. The man is unashamedly marketing here, and the trouble is that unlike his predecessor, he is too arrogant and stubborn to be any good at it. At least JP2 could sell himself as a nice guy while waffling. Ratzinger comes off as a vicious, lying toad, and it doesn’t really seem to me like he’s begging forgiveness for Christianity’s violent past at all. Instead it seems more like a deflection, grudgingly acknowledging that ‘mistakes were made’ and then trying to distract everyone by saying secularism is so much worse. It is the exact same gambit the church has been using to try to deal with the child sex abuse scandals – grudging acknowledgement then swift deflection of blame to somebody or something that had nothing to do with it. Remember when they blamed the ‘permissive 60s’ for priests getting confused and thinking it was ok to rape children?
October 28th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
He’d make a wonderful pantomime villain – pity it’s not a fantasy after all:
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage.....x329,0.jpg
October 28th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
When the Atheist-hating, Human Rights opposing old git dies I am going to throw a party.
October 28th, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Tales of “Muslim atrocities” were largely exaggerated or fictitious. The Crusades were more about protecting European rulers from Eastern invaders, and plenary indulgence was really only intended for those who died fighting the infidel, so how could you know that you were going to die in battle when you committed sins beforehand?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades
October 28th, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Pretty sure many of the peasants did not expect to return, given their lack of training and how formidable the foe had been hyped to be. And from what I read back in University, many bishops were a little… creative with their relation to the fighters of what the pope’s indulgence meant.
October 28th, 2011 at 5:36 pm
Oh, that’s the famous “religious mental pretzel” hard at work again. “We’ll never be violent again… Unless they bring it on themselves.” I think that’s pretty much how the Crusades started in the first place.
October 28th, 2011 at 5:56 pm
Never in the history of mankind have the words “For atheism” been screamed into the face of a victim before igniting a fire beneath it. Or flying into a skyscraper. Or going to war. Or, to THIS very day, Mr. Ratzinger, going on gay or witch hunts in Africa. Or bombing clinics. Or driving gay teens to suicide from social pressure. I am also pretty sure that when I visited the national museum here in Germany two years ago, the original Schutzstaffel belt buckets displayed there read “Gott mit uns”, not “Atheismus mit uns”. For someone claiming “false certainity”, you sure have a whole lot of hole where your proof should be for upholding *your* claim.
In short, Mr. Ratzinger: Fuck you, and the seven year old catholic church boy you rode in on.
October 28th, 2011 at 5:58 pm
“Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Taoists, Shintoists and Buddhists”
All of these religions listed played a major part in the Second World War, among many others.
October 28th, 2011 at 7:20 pm
@ Frank Cone
Amen to that.
October 28th, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Ooops, sorry. That should have been Kone with a K. Well, you know, it’s Friday night.
October 28th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Did anyone else watch this?
http://www.channel4.com/progra.....episode-14
Dr Fireman says that God wants him to be rich and denies that Jesus had a humble life. ‘Jesus was rich and had an accountant who followed him around,’ he tells Rhodes.
Oh, dear!
October 28th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Won’t it be sad to see the last of ‘em…
Exodus as pope’s Legion reform lags
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation.....10087.html
Brazil’s Roman Catholics shrink as secular rise
http://articles.boston.com/201.....olic-share
October 28th, 2011 at 11:49 pm
When Pope Benedict (formerly Ratzinger) was a Hitler Youth, what did it say on his belt buckle? GOTT MIT UNZ. ‘God is on our side.’ To say the death camps were the result of atheism, to say they were not the result of Christianity – these are lies, easily disproven. Shame upon the Pope.
October 29th, 2011 at 4:00 am
The only reason pope ratzi spoke about violence was to give the impression he and catholic inc are some sorts of moral authorities. No ratzi, no.
October 29th, 2011 at 10:53 am
How many times must the tired old lie that the Nazi’s were atheists be trotted out? It has been documented again and again that Hitler was a Catholic, and wrote at length on his perception of the Jews’ crimes against Jesus. The Nazi concordat with the Vatican demonstrates the esteem the Nazi’s held for religion in general. There was also a pervasive under current within Nazism of pagan mysticism which was also religious in it’s own way. Quite how this man can stand up and spout these lies is beyond me. It is also a mark of disgrace for his audience that he was not challenged.
In regards to Stalin, does he think the massacres in the USSR would not have happened if uncle Joe was a Sky fairy subscriber? Nonsense. I’m afraid these are the sad delusions of a desperate man.
October 29th, 2011 at 10:59 am
Godwin’s Law again – it clearly extends beyond the Internet into religious gatherings.
October 29th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
Ratzinger knows that he’s known throughout the whole world now as the protector of child-rapists and will be known for it long after his death, and for him to say that “the denial of God robs man of his criteria for judging right and wrong” is so typical of this diseased and sick man.
These pathetic and transparent attempts to rewrite the past show how desperate the Catholic Church is to try and hang on to its dwindling numbers. How many more of these pseudo-apologies will we have to hear?
He shouldn’t be in Assisi giving speeches and lecturing people, he should be awaiting trial in the Hague.
October 29th, 2011 at 6:26 pm
@Martin Hatter: Whatever else Ratzinger is he is not stupid. He knows the score, as you rightly say. But he chooses to behave as if he did not. He is a hypocrite. At his age, and dressed in his designer clothes, living in style and surrounded by sycophants, he is going to stay with what he has got. His reputation is cast in stone. It will not change.
October 29th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
I think that the issue of the Pope trying to shift the blame for the Holocaust onto the atheists needs to be given a high profile by the Gnu Atheist movement. There is some irony in the fact that Hitler’s chief of propaganda (Goebels?) has been quoted as saying that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. It needs publicising every time that he says it, I doubt that him preaching to the religious choir at an ecumenical gathering is likely to be widely reported in the MSM.
His pretending that the sins of the RCC all took place in the past needs challenging as well. Which future Pope will be apologising for him?
October 30th, 2011 at 1:26 am
So now he’s redefining what agnostics believe? Seems like he’s trying to get the “moderate atheists” (agnostics) on his side, but I’m glad to see he’s still hating on the rest of us.
Speaking of militant atheists:
http://i.imgur.com/oVXez.jpg
October 30th, 2011 at 2:30 am
Pete H – Divide and conquer is the oldest strategy in the book. Lucky for us that he has totally misjudged the situation. These dicks really do think they can put the genie back in the bottle and let’s let them go on with that fatally flawed nonsense, let them tie themselves and their resources with it.
The only place they can get recruits in meaningful numbers are in the poorest and most underdeveloped parts of the planet. Even here education and development will spread within our grandchildrens’ lifetimes. Then the whole edifice will evaporate in a matter of a few short decades, much like the USSR just died a sudden death.
Even the knackerheads can smell this in the wind. Look at Boko Haram – which translates as, “Western education is forbidden”. They are threatened and they knew exactly what has them in their sights.
October 30th, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Sick, lying old bigot.
October 31st, 2011 at 7:46 am
‘The horrors of the concentration camps reveal with utter clarity the consequences of God’s absence.’
So the Pope proclaims the abscence of his God.
Does that make the Pope a Holocaust-denier or a God denier or just a confused person who claims that if his god had been present, there would have been no concentration camps.
Of course, it should be remembered that the Hitler Youth was by no means a wicked organisation, nor an organisation full to the brim with atheists.
This news came to light seconds after Ratzinger became Pope.