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.