Godless secularization is a threat within Church, Pope warns

(March 8, 2008) The type of secularization that denies the existence of God is not only an external threat to believers but is also very much alive in the heart of the Church, warned Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday. He was speaking to some 50 participants in the plenary meeting of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture, that discussed the theme, "The Church And The Challenge Of Secularization." “Secularization without any reference to the transcendent, which is an imposition of the world and humanity on culture,” the Pope observed, “invades every aspect of daily life and develops a mentality in which God is actually denied existence, in whole or in part, in reality and in the human consciousness. This secularization, evident for some time also within the Church itself, profoundly sterilizes Christian faith and the lifestyle and behaviour of Christians from within. Furthermore, the dominating consumerist and hedonistic mentality creates in the faithful and the pastors a tendency towards superficiality and egocentrism that harm the life of the Church. In this cultural context, the Pope pointed out, there is a risk of falling into in spiritual barrenness and emptiness of heart, which are sometimes characterized by surrogate forms of religious adherence and vague spiritualism. Pope Benedict therefore urged to combat such a tendency by having recourse to high values that give meaning to life and that can satisfy man’s search for happiness – such as the dignity of the human person and his freedom, equality among all men, the meaning of life and death and what awaits us after this world.