From Deseret News archives:
Pope addresses secularism in France
"What gave Europe's culture its foundation the search for God and the readiness to listen to him remains today the basis of any genuine culture," he said.
Pope Benedict spoke before 700 academics, cultural figures and Muslim leaders at the College des Bernardins, a new cultural center in a 13th-century monastery, a location he called "emblematic" for his remarks.
"Amid the great cultural upheaval resulting from migrations of peoples and the emerging new political configurations, the monasteries were the places where the treasures of ancient culture survived," he said.
"It is through the search for God that the secular sciences take on their importance."
His message went counter to a deep vein of anti-clericalism in France, which has long drawn sharp distinctions between issues of faith and matters of temporal power.
But the pope proposed a "distinction between the political realm and that of religion in order to preserve both the religious freedom of citizens and the responsibility of the state toward them." He distinguished the state's legislative and social duties from religion's role "for the formation of conscience" and the "creation of a basic ethical consensus in society."
After his speeches, the pope said a Mass for young people at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.
The pope's four-day stay in France had been planned to commemorate the 150th anniversary of what the Vatican recognizes as the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to a 14-year-old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, at Lourdes in 1858. He broadened his journey at the invitation of Sarkozy, who spoke during a visit to Rome and the Vatican last year of a "positive secularism," saying religion "should not be considered a danger but an asset."
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