While doing some research for my article on secularism for the Times-Picayune, I've run across a lot of good stuff that I can't use b/c of space limitations. Fortunately, HancAquam isn't so limited!
It is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United
States comes 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. BXVI, ad limina visit of US bishops in Rome, 2012.
The lack of a hermeneutic of faith with regard to Scripture entails more than
a simple absence; in its place there inevitably enters another hermeneutic, a
positivistic and secularized hermeneutic ultimately based on the
conviction that the Divine does not intervene in human history. According to
this hermeneutic, whenever a divine element seems present, it has to be
explained in some other way, reducing everything to the human element. This
leads to interpretations that deny the historicity of the divine elements. BXVI, Verbum Domini, 2010, 35(b).
. . .the secularized hermeneutic of sacred Scripture is the
product of reason’s attempt structurally to exclude any possibility that God
might enter into our lives and speak to us in human words. Here too, we need to
urge a broadening of the scope of reason.
In applying methods of historical analysis, no criteria should be adopted which
would rule out in advance God’s self-disclosure in human history. BXVI, Verbum Domini, 2010, 36.
Secularization, with its inherent emphasis on individualism, has its most
negative effects on individuals who are isolated and lack a sense of belonging.
Christianity, from its very beginning, has meant fellowship, a network of
relationships constantly strengthened by hearing God's word and sharing in the
Eucharist, and enlivened by the Holy Spirit. BXVI, Sacramentum caritatis, 2007, 76.
It must be
acknowledged that one of the most serious effects of the secularization just
mentioned is that it has relegated the Christian faith to the margins of life as
if it were irrelevant to everyday affairs. The futility of this way of living –
"as if God did not exist" – is now evident to everyone. Today there is a need
to rediscover that Jesus Christ is not just a private conviction or an abstract
idea, but a real person, whose becoming part of human history is capable of
renewing the life of every man and woman. Hence the Eucharist, as the source and
summit of the Church's life and mission, must be translated into spirituality,
into a life lived "according to the Spirit." BXVI, Sacramentum caritatis, 2007, 77.
. . .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. 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. BXVI, Apostolic Visitation of the US, 2008, Response to Questions.
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