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About the first article (Der Spiegel) posted by Benodette:
I met a German man (around 60 years old) the day before the article was posted here. I congratulated him on the fact that a German was elected as pope, etc. He shared my absolute admiration for B16 although he is also a Protestant. But, he also said that he had left Germany permanently a week ago because, in his view his beloved Germany is not only economically "bankrupt" but, more fundamentally, also on the spiritual level. Of course there are many exceptions but this is his assessment of the general "Geist" there. According to him this could also be seen clearly in the reaction of many German journalists ( not every single one!) on the election of Joseph Ratzinger. "They in fact didn't know how to react" (his words)... mostly because of the reasons mentioned above.

Der Spiegel's article to a large extent illustrated to me what this German was trying to tell me. But he also added that the attitude in the press re: the pope has started to change positively.

@Marybenedict, re: my post about German guy whom I've met. I live in South-Africa. Many colleagues and ex-students of mine are now working in Europe. They left South Africa as Christians but every single one of them have become agnostics or worse. The secular, liberal-humanistic (or whatever it can be called), relativistic thinking European society seems to have waved a magic wand over them. The only thing that seems to "count" in Europe, and the West generally(?), is human rights and total "human freedom". That's one of the reasons for the joy felt by the Protestant German guy when Papa was elected, an elation I and all of us share with him, a fervent hope that Papa Ratzinger's mission for Europe will be fruitful.

For me personally it has been a very sad phenomenon to read about, and to experience during short visits to Europe and Brittain, the seemingly freely-willed cultural and religious suicide of a continent and civilization which I've always held in the highest esteem... have idealised really. To see the "cradle" of Western society slowly disintegrate on a spiritual level makes my heart bleed. And it is not only the result of globalization. It has actually started before the world has become a "village", as Ratzinger had been analyzing time and again, to the chagrin of the post-modern intellectuals, in his many writings and speeches (not that I have read these before he was elected Pope, it is only since April that I even knew about him, being non-Catholic).

What is rather frightening is the emergence of a subtle, and sometimes overt, attack on Christian beliefs in one of the southern-most countries in the world: South Africa__ far away from "everything". Many theologians who went from here to Europe for post-graduate studies return with the conviction that Jesus was a (granted, very special, unique) man from Galilee, but he wasn't God's Son, he wasn't Christ, the divine Saviour. THAT interpretation, according to them, was grafted onto Jesus by St. Paul and some traditions in the early church, influenced by Graeco-Roman philosophy, and anyhow, much of what is written in the Gospels is not the words of Jesus himself, but part of the interpretation of these different "traditions, added later. You've all heard this line of reasoning, I'm sure, and the Jesus Seminar in the USA has done its bit in spreading this.

The ordinary Christian in my country is baffled and in a kind of agony when THEOLOGIANS spread these ideas. If Christians who had been studying for years and years tell you that you've all along been believing in a man-made construct, a kind of pie-in-the-sky belief that is now out-dated, and that has no historical truth.....let me stop here..... It has become a world-wide phenomenon. To be "orthodox" in your Christian beliefs is now suddenly the equivalent of uninformedness, naivety and...well...you've been caught out by paternalistic, male-chauvenist history of the past 2000 years.

Thank you Joseph Ratzinger. Apart from what you say and write, I can see that what you believe is true just by looking at you. GO for Europe, please!
And, of course, the ultimate success will be the work of the Holy Spirit, no matter how wonderful Papa is. He is in the first instance an instrument of God. I suppose we also have to pray for Europe, something that I do not do enough.

Regards and "choy" to all you lovely folks on this forum! Wish I could one day see you in real life!