Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The direct opposition of powerful new cultural currents "to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition "but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such", along with the attempt to consrticting the proclamation of the truth of the Gospel "by suppressing it in the name of political power or majority rule" "they represent a threat not only to the Christian faith, but also to humanity itself". This is the Holy Father Benedict XVI’s thought expressed in his speech to a group of Bishops of the United States of America (regions IV-VI) received at the hearing on January 19, during their Ad Limina Apostolorum visit. "When a culture attempts to suppress the dimension of ultimate mystery, and to close the doors to transcendent truth - the Pope said – it inevitably becomes impoverished ... and falls prey to reductionist and totalitarian readings of the human person and the nature of society".
In his speech, the Pope highlighted that "the Church has a critical role to play in countering the cultural currents which, on the basis of an extreme individualism, seek to promote notions of freedom detached from moral truth", also "the legitimate separation of Church and State cannot be taken to mean that the Church must be silent on certain issues, nor that the State may choose not to engage or be engaged by, the voices of committed believers in determining the values which will shape the future of the nation". So Benedict XVI reiterated the importance that "the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism, which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres". In this regard, the Pope mentioned "certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion", the efforts "to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices", and then "a worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship, without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience".
Faced with this situation and the difficulties encountered by the Church today, Benedict XVI stressed "the need for an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-a-vis the dominant culture and with the courage to counter a reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about issues which are determining the future of American society". (SL) (Agenzia Fides 20/01/2012)
