RESPONSES OF HIS HOLINESS
BENEDICT XVI
TO THE QUESTIONS POSED BY THE BISHOPS
National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
1. The Holy Father is asked
to give his assessment of the challenge of increasing secularism in
public life and relativism in intellectual life, and his advice on
how to confront these challenges pastorally and evangelize more
effectively.
I touched upon this theme
briefly in my address. It strikes me as significant that here in
America, unlike many places in Europe, the secular mentality has not
been intrinsically opposed to religion. Within the context of the
separation of Church and State, American society has always been
marked by a fundamental respect for religion and its public role,
and, if polls are to be believed, the American people are deeply
religious. But it is not enough to count on this traditional
religiosity and go about business as usual, even as its foundations
are being slowly undermined. A serious commitment to evangelization
cannot prescind from a profound diagnosis of the real challenges the
Gospel encounters in contemporary American culture.
Of course, what is essential
is a correct understanding of the just autonomy of the secular
order, an autonomy which cannot be divorced from God the Creator and
his saving plan (cf.
Gaudium et Spes, 36). Perhaps America’s brand of secularism
poses a particular problem: it allows for professing belief in God,
and respects the public role of religion and the Churches, but at
the same time it can subtly reduce religious belief to a lowest
common denominator. Faith becomes a passive acceptance that certain
things “out there” are true, but without practical relevance for
everyday life. The result is a growing separation of faith from
life: living “as if God did not exist”. This is aggravated by an
individualistic and eclectic approach to faith and religion: far
from a Catholic approach to “thinking with the Church”, each person
believes he or she has a right to pick and choose, maintaining
external social bonds but without an integral, interior conversion
to the law of Christ. Consequently, rather than being transformed
and renewed in mind, Christians are easily tempted to conform
themselves to the spirit of this age (cf. Rom 12:3). We have seen
this emerge in an acute way in the scandal given by Catholics who
promote an alleged right to abortion.
On a deeper level,
secularism challenges the Church to reaffirm and to pursue more
actively her mission in and to the world. As the Council made clear,
the lay faithful have a particular responsibility in this regard.
What is needed, I am convinced, is a greater sense of the intrinsic
relationship between the Gospel and the natural law on the one hand,
and, on the other, the pursuit of authentic human good, as embodied
in civil law and in personal moral decisions. In a society that
rightly values personal liberty, the Church needs to promote at
every level of her teaching – in catechesis, preaching, seminary and
university instruction – an apologetics aimed at affirming the truth
of Christian revelation, the harmony of faith and reason, and a
sound understanding of freedom, seen in positive terms as a
liberation both from the limitations of sin and for an authentic and
fulfilling life. In a word, the Gospel has to be preached and taught
as an integral way of life, offering an attractive and true answer,
intellectually and practically, to real human problems. The
“dictatorship of relativism”, in the end, is nothing less than a
threat to genuine human freedom, which only matures in generosity
and fidelity to the truth.
Much more, of course, could
be said on this subject: let me conclude, though, by saying that I
believe that the Church in America, at this point in her history, is
faced with the challenge of recapturing the Catholic vision of
reality and presenting it, in an engaging and imaginative way, to a
society which markets any number of recipes for human fulfillment. I
think in particular of our need to speak to the hearts of young
people, who, despite their constant exposure to messages contrary to
the Gospel, continue to thirst for authenticity, goodness and truth.
Much remains to be done, particularly on the level of preaching and
catechesis in parishes and schools, if the new evangelization is to
bear fruit for the renewal of ecclesial life in America.
2. The Holy Father is asked
about “a certain quiet attrition” by which Catholics are abandoning
the practice of the faith, sometimes by an explicit decision, but
often by distancing themselves quietly and gradually from attendance
at Mass and identification with the Church.
Certainly, much of this has
to do with the passing away of a religious culture, sometimes
disparagingly referred to as a “ghetto”, which reinforced
participation and identification with the Church. As I just
mentioned, one of the great challenges facing the Church in this
country is that of cultivating a Catholic identity which is based
not so much on externals as on a way of thinking and acting grounded
in the Gospel and enriched by the Church’s living tradition.
The issue clearly involves
factors such as religious individualism and scandal. Let us go to
the heart of the matter: faith cannot survive unless it is
nourished, unless it is “formed by charity” (cf. Gal 5:6). Do people
today find it difficult to encounter God in our Churches? Has our
preaching lost its salt? Might it be that many people have
forgotten, or never really learned, how to pray in and with the
Church?
Here I am not speaking of
people who leave the Church in search of subjective religious
“experiences”; this is a pastoral issue which must be addressed on
its own terms. I think we are speaking about people who have fallen
by the wayside without consciously having rejected their faith in
Christ, but, for whatever reason, have not drawn life from the
liturgy, the sacraments, preaching. Yet Christian faith, as we know,
is essentially ecclesial, and without a living bond to the
community, the individual’s faith will never grow to maturity.
Indeed, to return to the question I just discussed, the result can
be a quiet apostasy.
So let me make two brief
observations on the problem of “attrition”, which I hope will
stimulate further reflection.
First, as you know, it is
becoming more and more difficult, in our Western societies, to speak
in a meaningful way of “salvation”. Yet salvation – deliverance from
the reality of evil, and the gift of new life and freedom in Christ
– is at the heart of the Gospel. We need to discover, as I have
suggested, new and engaging ways of proclaiming this message and
awakening a thirst for the fulfillment which only Christ can bring.
It is in the Church’s liturgy, and above all in the sacrament of the
Eucharist, that these realities are most powerfully expressed and
lived in the life of believers; perhaps we still have much to do in
realizing the Council’s vision of the liturgy as the exercise of the
common priesthood and the impetus for a fruitful apostolate in the
world.
Second, we need to
acknowledge with concern the almost complete eclipse of an
eschatological sense in many of our traditionally Christian
societies. As you know, I have pointed to this problem in the
Encyclical
Spe Salvi. Suffice it to say that faith and hope are not limited
to this world: as theological virtues, they unite us with the Lord
and draw us toward the fulfillment not only of our personal destiny
but also that of all creation. Faith and hope are the inspiration
and basis of our efforts to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of
God. In Christianity, there can be no room for purely private
religion: Christ is the Savior of the world, and, as members of his
Body and sharers in his prophetic, priestly and royal munera, we
cannot separate our love for him from our commitment to the building
up of the Church and the extension of his Kingdom. To the extent
that religion becomes a purely private affair, it loses its very
soul.
Let me conclude by stating
the obvious. The fields are still ripe for harvesting (cf. Jn 4:35);
God continues to give the growth (cf. 1 Cor 3:6). We can and must
believe, with the late Pope John Paul II, that God is preparing a
new springtime for Christianity (cf.
Redemptoris Missio, 86). What is needed above all, at this time
in the history of the Church in America, is a renewal of that
apostolic zeal which inspires her shepherds actively to seek out the
lost, to bind up those who have been wounded, and to bring strength
to those who are languishing (cf. Ez 34:16). And this, as I have
said, calls for new ways of thinking based on a sound diagnosis of
today’s challenges and a commitment to unity in the service of the
Church’s mission to the present generation.
3. The Holy Father is asked
to comment on the decline in vocations despite the growing numbers
of the Catholic population, and on the reasons for hope offered by
the personal qualities and the thirst for holiness which
characterize the candidates who do come forward.
Let us be quite frank: the
ability to cultivate vocations to the priesthood and the religious
life is a sure sign of the health of a local Church. There is no
room for complacency in this regard. God continues to call young
people; it is up to all of us to encourage a generous and free
response to that call. On the other hand, none of us can take this
grace for granted.
In the Gospel, Jesus tells
us to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send workers. He even
admits that the workers are few in comparison with the abundance of
the harvest (cf. Mt 9:37-38). Strange to say, I often think that
prayer – the unum necessarium – is the one aspect of vocations work
which we tend to forget or to undervalue!
Nor am I speaking only of
prayer for vocations. Prayer itself, born in Catholic families,
nurtured by programs of Christian formation, strengthened by the
grace of the sacraments, is the first means by which we come to know
the Lord’s will for our lives. To the extent that we teach young
people to pray, and to pray well, we will be cooperating with God’s
call. Programs, plans and projects have their place; but the
discernment of a vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate
dialogue between the Lord and his disciples. Young people, if they
know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God’s call.
It has been noted that there
is a growing thirst for holiness in many young people today, and
that, although fewer in number, those who come forward show great
idealism and much promise. It is important to listen to them, to
understand their experiences, and to encourage them to help their
peers to see the need for committed priests and religious, as well
as the beauty of a life of sacrificial service to the Lord and his
Church. To my mind, much is demanded of vocation directors and
formators: candidates today, as much as ever, need to be given a
sound intellectual and human formation which will enable them not
only to respond to the real questions and needs of their
contemporaries, but also to mature in their own conversion and to
persevere in life-long commitment to their vocation. As Bishops, you
are conscious of the sacrifice demanded when you are asked to
release one of your finest priests for seminary work. I urge you to
respond with generosity, for the good of the whole Church.
Finally, I think you know
from experience that most of your brother priests are happy in their
vocation. What I said in my address about the importance of unity
and cooperation within the presbyterate applies here too. There is a
need for all of us to move beyond sterile divisions, disagreements
and preconceptions, and to listen together to the voice of the
Spirit who is guiding the Church into a future of hope. Each of us
knows how important priestly fraternity has been in our lives. That
fraternity is not only a precious possession, but also an immense
resource for the renewal of the priesthood and the raising up of new
vocations. I would close by encouraging you to foster opportunities
for ever greater dialogue and fraternal encounter among your
priests, and especially the younger priests. I am convinced that
this will bear great fruit for their own enrichment, for the
increase of their love for the priesthood and the Church, and for
the effectiveness of their apostolate.
Dear Brother Bishops, with
these few observations, I once more encourage all of you in your
ministry to the faithful entrusted to your pastoral care, and I
commend you to the loving intercession of Mary Immaculate, Mother of
the Church. Top
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