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Email a FriendPosted by Dreena Tischler on Monday, Jan 30, 2012 11:20 PM (EDT):
Thank you for this articulate and clear summary! You know, I read this article, but your review made it hit home for me. Thanks so much.
The Pope Has A Mission For Us
Benedict XVI: "we need a prepared laity"
Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Friday, January 20, 2012 2:38 PM
It’s not often you get a message tailor-made for you from the Pope.
So it was with relish I read the Holy Father’s words to the bishops of Maryland (DC, Baltimore & Military Services) on their ad limina visit to Rome this week.
The bulk of his talk was about protection of religious liberty, and why Catholic concerns aren’t merely parochial, but ordered towards the defense of human dignity for all.
He opened by recalling the connection between faith and the natural law as enshrined in our Declaration of Independence, and the increasing abandonment of those principles:
At the heart of every culture, whether perceived or not, is a consensus about the nature of reality and the moral good, and thus about the conditions for human flourishing. In America, that consensus, as enshrined in your nation’s founding documents, was grounded in a worldview shaped not only by faith but a commitment to certain ethical principles deriving from nature and nature’s God. Today that consensus has eroded significantly in the face of powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such.
The Church’s mission is to proclaim the Gospel in season and out of season, but where certain moral principles are involved (the right to life and defense of marriage, among others), the Church does not seek to impose its faith or constrain anyone’s freedom, but to defend justice and the rights of the person:
With her long tradition of respect for the right relationship between faith and reason, the Church has a critical role to play in countering cultural currents which, on the basis of an extreme individualism, seek to promote notions of freedom detached from moral truth. Our tradition does not speak from blind faith, but from a rational perspective which links our commitment to building an authentically just, humane and prosperous society to our ultimate assurance that the cosmos is possessed of an inner logic accessible to human reasoning. The Church’s defense of a moral reasoning based on the natural law is grounded on her conviction that this law is not a threat to our freedom, but rather a “language” which enables us to understand ourselves and the truth of our being, and so to shape a more just and humane world. She thus proposes her moral teaching as a message not of constraint but of liberation, and as the basis for building a secure future.
This brings him more directly to the question of religious liberty and the various threats posed to it in the United States by the erosion of conscience protections and the denigration of those who defend marriage to the status of “bigots.” When making public arguments, “Jesus said so” isn’t sufficient: we have to persuade by reason. At the same, however, separation of church and state does not imply a “right” to never have to listen to anyone religious.
The Church’s witness, then, is of its nature public: she seeks to convince by proposing rational arguments in the public square. 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.
Faith is not a disqualifier from the right to argue and be heard in the public square, and people of faith should not be hindered from carrying out the demands of their faith in public, yet that is the precise effect of so many proposed regulations and legal challenges in our nation at the moment. (Just today, for example, Secretary Sebelius issued her final HHS ruling compelling Catholic organizations to cover contraceptives, including abortifacients, and elective sterilizations.)
Which brings the Holy Father to his challenge to the bishops and ultimately to all of us.
it is imperative 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. The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life. Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion. Many of you have pointed out that concerted efforts have been made to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices. Others have spoken to me of a worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience.
More specifically, the Church needs an engaged laity.
once more we see the need for an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture and with the courage to counter a reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society.
What is the pastoral priority for the United States in the immediate future?
The preparation of committed lay leaders and the presentation of a convincing articulation of the Christian vision of man and society remain a primary task of the Church in your country; as essential components of the new evangelization, these concerns must shape the vision and goals of catechetical programs at every level.
He closes on a hopeful note, thanking the bishops for the ways they are already engaging Catholics, especially Catholics in political life, and noting the enthusiasm of the rising generation of Catholics.
He notes as well the leavening power of faithful Catholics on society as a whole.
There can be no doubt that a more consistent witness on the part of America’s Catholics to their deepest convictions would make a major contribution to the renewal of society as a whole.
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