Benedict XVI issued an unusual and sincere warning, a provocative message that should be read very carefully: it is better to be a searching agnostic than a fake believer.
During the mass that was celebrated this morning at the airport in Freiburg, in the last day of his German visit, Benedict XVI praised the "agnostics who cannot find peace due to their questions about God, people who suffer because of our sins and are desirous of a pure heart."
They are "closer to the Kingdom of God than "routine" believers who only see the apparatus of the Church without their hearts being touched by faith."
A strong appeal to "unite" the Church in Germany and maintain a strong bond with Rome was launched by Benedict XVI.
The Pope's call responds to the demands for reform in various areas - such as the question of remarried divorcees, priestly celibacy and the ordination of women - and also the anti-Rome pressure from sectors of the German church.
"The renewal of the Church," Ratzinger warned, "can only come about through the willingness to convert and through a renewal of faith.”
The German Pope, aware that the ill-feeling towards the Vatican's failure to respond to requests for renewal, is most felt in his homeland, Germany and in Austria, warned that "the Church in Germany will overcome the great challenges of the present and future and will remain yeast in society, if the priests, consecrated persons and lay believers in Christ, loyal to their own specific vocation, work together in unity."
During the homily the Pope stressed that the German Church, "will continue to be a blessing for the global Catholic community, if it remains closely united with the successors of St Peter and the Apostles", and also, "if it looks after the collaboration with the mission countries in many ways and through this allows itself to be 'infected’ by the joy of the young faithful in the Church."
In view of the renewal of the faith, Benedict XVI, also urged believers not just to be faithful out of habit and commented on the day's readings.
The Pope praised and thanked those people who work as volunteers, those "many social and charitable institutions" of the German church, "where love for our neighbour is carried out in a socially effective way all around the world."