Pope urges Australian youths to spurn materialism

The vatican is replete with all sorts of ornate, opulante cathedrals, museums, etc. The cardinals, and the pope himself wear very expensive robes, jewelry, etc. If he wants to tune down materialism he should start with himself.

DB

There has to be exceptions to the rule DB. The leaders have 'earned' their perks.

I can agree with many things the pope says. He says what he knows will make him popular, and it doesn't cost him anything to make those pronouncements.

Most of my relatives are nominal Catholics and I myself study Roman Catholicism. The religion has many wonderful, attractive things about it. I find its ceremonies and its love and appreciation for art particularly attractive. Also its political and diplomatic wisdom and its amazing insight into the human psyche. What other churches can equal its great musicians, writers, artists, poets, scientists, philosophers, etc.?

That is why I have said before that I might well have been Catholic today if it wasn't for my study of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. The Church has Christ and the Trinity. It teaches salvation by faith now virtually the same as the Lutheran church does. Today those two churches are in fundamental agreement on Justification. You can also find there every kind of idea entertained by some members of the laity and even of some of the religious-- from evolution to the non-existence of the historical Christ. You can believe anything you want and be a member.

So I can completely understand Protestants who choose to join the Catholic Church. I would do it, too, if I thought that truth didn't matter and that the only thing that matters is love and unity. But of course the truth does matter-- truths such as Christ's heavenly priesthood, sanctification, the Sabbath, the true nature of man, the Second Coming, what constitutes Babylon and wherein lies its fall, confession of sins to God alone, etc. They do most certainly matter. If they don't, why then are we separate?