Pope says crisis of faith is biggest challenge to Church
(January 27, 2012) We are faced with a deep crisis of faith - a loss of religious
sense which is the biggest challenge for the Church today, Pope Benedict XVI warned
on Friday. “Therefore the renewal of faith must be the priority in the commitment
of the whole Church today,” the Pope said addressing some 70 participants in the plenary
assembly of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “In vast regions
of the earth,” he noted, “faith risks being put off like a flame that has no more
oil.” He wished that the Year of Faith starting on October 11 will help address
this crisis, and thanked the Congregation for its work in this regard in collaboration
with the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization. He hoped the Year of
Faith will be a propitious time for the Church to offer again to all the gift of faith
in the risen Christ, the brilliant teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the
Catechism of the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict also said that various Christians
Churches must speak in one voice on ethical and Christian issues, saying “the moral
question is a new challenge in the path of ecumenism.” He said we cannot ignore
the great moral questions linked with human life, the family, bioethics, freedom,
justice, peace and the environment.