Pope to Brazilian Bishops: Be 'Ecclesial Souls', Resist 'Internal Secularization'
(05 Dec 09 - RV) “The fundamental purpose of Christian education is to promote unity
of faith, culture and life”. In his message to the 4th group of Brazilian
bishops to travel to Rome this year on Ad Limina Visit, Pope Benedict focused on
education and educators at the service of Brazilian society.
With reference
to the culture, he praised the regions Catholic Schools and University’s describing
them as two classic places where society is formed and informed in Christian humanism
However
added the Pope state schools, may be aided in their educational task by the presence
of teachers who are believers - primarily but not exclusively the Catholic religion
teachers. Indeed, he said, a healthy secularism of the school does not imply the denial
of transcendence, or a mere neutrality with respect to those requirements and moral
values that are the foundation of true education of the person, including religious
education.
In turn Pope Benedict pointed out that Catholic schools can not
live separated from other educational institutions. They at the service of society
can not be reserved only for Catholics. Instead they must be open to all who want
to enjoy a qualified educational program.
Pope Benedict then spoke of role
of Universities in guiding people to the highest levels of knowledge of truth and
the world in all its aspects. He also recalled the 25th anniversary of
Libertatis nuntius an Instruction issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith on liberation theology, that stressed the danger entailed in an uncritical
adoption by some theologians of opinions and methods drawn from Marxism.
Its
followers, more or less visibly, created rebellion, division, dissension, offences,
anarchy causing great suffering in diocesan communities and serious loss of life.
On Saturday Pope Benedict appealed to all those who somehow were attracted
to, involved in or affected by certain seducing principles of liberation theology,
to remember that "the supreme rule of faith [the Church] (75) derives from the unity
which the Spirit has created between Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium
of the Church in a reciprocity which means that none of the three can survive without
the others" (John Paul II, Encyclical . Fides et Ratio, 55).
Taking his leave
of the bishops Pope Benedict asked the leaders of the Church in the Land of the Holy
Cross to remain "ecclesial souls 'learning to resist that "internal secularization"
that threatens the Church and its teachings.