Posted on 01/19/2012 3:56:28 PM PST by NYer
VATICAN CITY, January 19, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a meeting with various U.S. Bishops today, Pope Benedict XVI said that the consensus which once existed in America supporting “ethical principles deriving from nature and nature’s God,” has faded. “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,” he said.
The Pope was emphatic in insisting that the threat posed by current trends threatens not only Christianity but “humanity itself.” He said: “To the extent that some current cultural trends contain elements that would curtail the proclamation of these truths, whether constricting it within the limits of a merely scientific rationality, or suppressing it in the name of political power or majority rule, they represent a threat not just to Christian faith, but also to humanity itself and to the deepest truth about our being and ultimate vocation, our relationship to God.”
The Pope used strong language to describe the grave situation he perceives in America. “(I)t is imperative,” he said, “that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realise 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.” He continued, “The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life.”
Pope Benedict pointed specifically to attempts to limit freedom of religion, and to “deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices.“
The reference to “evil practices” would include Catholic adoption agencies being forced to allow homosexual adoptions, the Obama contraceptive mandate, and similar measures.
Pope Benedict, in sounding the alarm, called not for retreat, but for the leaders of the Catholic Church to press on with preaching the truth however unpopular. “For her part, the Church in the United States is called, in season and out of season, to proclaim a Gospel which not only proposes unchanging moral truths but proposes them precisely as the key to human happiness and social prospering,” he said. “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.”
The Pope’s full address can be read here.
I think the consensus existed because more folks feared God back then.They believed in nature's God because nature all around them pointed to Him.They didn't have the problem of trying to intellectualise away Genesis 1:1.
It is man's reliance on man's wisdom that eroded that consensus,not the powerfull new cultural trends.Rather the new cultural trends have sprung from that eroded consensus.
.....And also those strict Bible-oriented Evangelicals as well.
I meant that Catholics have to stop voting for Democrats. The Catholic vote consistently gives big city Democrats the margin of victory. If they’re truly Catholics, then they should vote for those candidates that most support their beliefs. That’s not Democrats.
“Anyway according to my Catholic in-laws, unless you are stamped Catholic you are NOT Christian anyway.”
They are wrong, tell them to take it up with Pope Benedict and the congregation for the doctrine of the faith.
“It follows that these separated churches and Communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation. In fact the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church”[12].
Freegards
And I’m agreeing. Unless they return to being really Catholic, they can’t do a thing about the Country, they’ve raplaced their faith with someting else. I think just like a great many non-Catholics are more socal Christians than believers, the same is true of Catholics.
The number of preists and bishops who wanted to revemp the Catholic Church into something almost, but not quite, Protestant didn’t help but it is mainly the folks who seem to be habitual Catholics but not believing Catholics who I think are solidly democrat. They’re just the same as the non-Catholics who led the way in teaching the “social gospel” when thousands of them welcomed Margret Sanger as a speaker when she was first advocating what became PP and eugenics. If the Church returns to the Orthodox teaching, the folks who are the problem will either turn around and change or leave. I don’t really see any other religious group with a chance of having the same sort of national impact if they turn around.
I am surprised at how many fellow catholics have just gone along with the herd on gay marriage and snubbing their noses at decent catholics like Rick Santorum.
They will use the typical descriptives like “ultra” and “extreme”.....
I’m always left wondering -”you want to self-identify as a catholic yet mock people who are only adhering to catholic teaching?”
This is an awfully good point you make.
The average parish is chock-a-block full of parishioners whose commitment to and knowledge of the Faith is as edifying as 2-hr-old warm coffee.
That aside, Catholics need to break the stranglehold Democrats have long held on Catholic voters.
If federalism were really allowed to work and the principle of subsidiarity gained traction, conservatism (not nec to be confused with the GOP) would be a natural home for Catholics.
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