Pope to US bishops: Defend the Churches’ place in public square
In his second major discourse to US bishops currently on their Ad limina pilgrimage
to Rome, those from Regions IV-VI, Pope Benedict praises the USCCB’s efforts to defend
the “ most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion” against “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”.
Below
the full text and audio of Pope Benedict’s address delivered Thursday: Listen:
Dear
Brother Bishops,
I greet all of you with fraternal affection and I pray that
this pilgrimage of spiritual renewal and deepened communion will confirm you in faith
and commitment to your task as Pastors of the Church in the United States of America.
As you know, it is my intention in the course of this year to reflect with you on
some of the spiritual and cultural challenges of the new evangelization.
One
of the most memorable aspects of my Pastoral Visit to the United States was the opportunity
it afforded me to reflect on America’s historical experience of religious freedom,
and specifically the relationship between religion and culture. At the heart of every
culture, whether perceived or not, is a consensus about the nature of reality and
the moral good, and thus about the conditions for human flourishing. In America,
that consensus, as enshrined in your nation’s founding documents, was grounded in
a worldview shaped not only by faith but a commitment to certain ethical principles
deriving from nature and nature’s God. Today that consensus has eroded significantly
in the face of powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed
to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile
to Christianity as such.
For her part, the Church in the United States is called,
in season and out of season, to proclaim a Gospel which not only proposes unchanging
moral truths but proposes them precisely as the key to human happiness and social
prospering (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 10). To the extent that some current cultural
trends contain elements that would curtail the proclamation of these truths, whether
constricting it within the limits of a merely scientific rationality, or suppressing
it in the name of political power or majority rule, they represent a threat not just
to Christian faith, but also to humanity itself and to the deepest truth about our
being and ultimate vocation, our relationship to God. When a culture attempts to
suppress the dimension of ultimate mystery, and to close the doors to transcendent
truth, it inevitably becomes impoverished and falls prey, as the late Pope John Paul
II so clearly saw, to reductionist and totalitarian readings of the human person and
the nature of society.
With her long tradition of respect for the right
relationship between faith and reason, the Church has a critical role to play in countering
cultural currents which, on the basis of an extreme individualism, seek to promote
notions of freedom detached from moral truth. Our tradition does not speak from blind
faith, but from a rational perspective which links our commitment to building an authentically
just, humane and prosperous society to our ultimate assurance that the cosmos is possessed
of an inner logic accessible to human reasoning. The Church’s defense of a moral
reasoning based on the natural law is grounded on her conviction that this law is
not a threat to our freedom, but rather a “language” which enables us to understand
ourselves and the truth of our being, and so to shape a more just and humane world.
She thus proposes her moral teaching as a message not of constraint but of liberation,
and as the basis for building a secure future.
The Church’s witness, then,
is of its nature public: she seeks to convince by proposing rational arguments in
the public square. The legitimate separation of Church and State cannot be taken
to mean that the Church must be silent on certain issues, nor that the State may choose
not to engage, or be engaged by, the voices of committed believers in determining
the values which will shape the future of the nation.
In the light of these
considerations, it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United
States come 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. Many of
you have pointed out that concerted efforts have been made to deny the right of conscientious
objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation
in intrinsically evil practices. Others have spoken to me of a worrying tendency
to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect
for freedom of conscience.
Here once more we see the need for an engaged, articulate
and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the
dominant culture and with the courage to counter a reductive secularism which would
delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about the issues which are
determining the future of American society. The preparation of committed lay leaders
and the presentation of a convincing articulation of the Christian vision of man and
society remain a primary task of the Church in your country; as essential components
of the new evangelization, these concerns must shape the vision and goals of catechetical
programs at every level.
In this regard, I would mention with appreciation
your efforts to maintain contacts with Catholics involved in political life and to
help them understand their personal responsibility to offer public witness to their
faith, especially with regard to the great moral issues of our time: respect for God’s
gift of life, the protection of human dignity and the promotion of authentic human
rights. As the Council noted, and I wished to reiterate during my Pastoral Visit,
respect for the just autonomy of the secular sphere must also take into consideration
the truth that “there is no realm of worldly affairs which can be withdrawn from the
Creator and his dominion” (Gaudium et Spes, 36). There can be no doubt that
a more consistent witness on the part of America’s Catholics to their deepest convictions
would make a major contribution to the renewal of society as a whole.
Dear
Brother Bishops, in these brief remarks I have wished to touch upon some of the pressing
issues which you face in your service to the Gospel and their significance for the
evangelization of American culture. No one who looks at these issues realistically
can ignore the genuine difficulties which the Church encounters at the present moment.
Yet in faith we can take heart from the growing awareness of the need to preserve
a civil order clearly rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, as well as from the
promise offered by a new generation of Catholics whose experience and convictions
will have a decisive role in renewing the Church’s presence and witness in American
society. The hope which these “signs of the times” give us is itself a reason to
renew our efforts to mobilize the intellectual and moral resources of the entire Catholic
community in the service of the evangelization of American culture and the building
of the civilization of love. With great affection I commend all of you, and the flock
entrusted to your care, to the prayers of Mary, Mother of Hope, and cordially impart
my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of grace and peace in Jesus Christ our Lord.