VATICAN CITY (RNS) Fifty years after the Second Vatican Council revolutionized life inside the Roman Catholic Church, hundreds of bishops from around the world are gathered in Rome to confront an external threat: a mounting tide of secularization.
The Synod of Bishops on “New Evangelization” brings together 262 top church leaders for a three-week summit at the Vatican, joined by lay experts and representatives of other Christian groups.
In a wide-ranging speech aimed at setting the tone for the bishops' discussion, Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl called on Christians to “overcome the syndrome of embarrassment” about their faith with a more assertive offense against the “tsunami of secular influence” that is sweeping away “marriage, family, the concept of the common good and objective right and wrong.”
Wuerl has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as the “relator general” of the synod, with the key task of summing up the main points of the bishops' discussions.
The synod is timed to coincide with the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which not only transformed the laity and liturgy of the church, but also reoriented the church's engagement with the modern world.
Benedict, who attended Vatican II as a young theologian, has called for a “Year of Faith” to mark the anniversary. He will celebrate a solemn Mass with the few surviving council fathers on Thursday (Oct. 11).
While the council marked a moment of renewal and enthusiasm for the church, Wuerl said it was followed by decades of poor teaching and substandard worship -- “aberrational liturgical practice,” he called it -- that made “entire generations” of Catholics incapable of transmitting the faith to their children and to society at large, ushering in today's secularized society.
Symptoms of this trend are a decline of faith and a shrinking number of Catholics in the Western world but also in traditional Catholic strongholds such as Latin America. Church marriages are decreasing, too, while divorce is all but mainstream.
Catholic leaders in the U.S. and Europe are also worried about a perceived rise of “aggressive” secularism, which they say wants to curtail the church's role in the public sphere and reduce faith to a private exercise.
But in an off-the-cuff meditation in front of the gathered bishops on Monday morning, Benedict was careful to frame the debate as a positive proposal of the church's timeless doctrine to contemporary society.
“Our role in the new evangelization is to cooperate with God,” he said. “We can only let people know what God has done.”
“New evangelization means announcing the faith to those regions that have been Christian for centuries but are now swept by the winds of secularism and religious indifference,” said professor Ilaria Morali of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
She stressed that while it is important for the church to harness modern technology to “spread the good news,” the essential part of new evangelization is “revitalizing” the church itself, letting Christians rediscover the “joy” and the “responsibility” that comes from faith.
J | Oct 9, 2012 | 3:29pm
“spread the good news,”
The church CANT spread the “good news” because they do not understand what it is, they dont know how, nor does false christianity have God’s spirit.
Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh | Oct 9, 2012 | 6:06pm
This is the perfect opportunity for the Pope and Synod of Bishops to dialogue and get their own house in order. As a Catholic physician who remembers the excitement of Vatican II, and the laity being told that “We are the Church”, I am so sad at what my Church has become. The Pope seems to be a tyrant and a coward. The Pope refuses to be accountable for his central role in allowing clergy sexual abuse of innocent children to flourish worldwide, from the 24 years that he was the head of the office that dealt with priest sexual abuse cases, and since 2005 as Pope. Why would any member of the faithful care about a new evangelization, when it is the Pope and hierarchy who need to be evangelized, in my view.
Worse than any secularism, there has been an outrageous betrayal of trust by the Pope and many bishops. Tragically, these men seem to have no shame about the harm that they have done to the Church and to the faithful. Many young men around the world, who were victims of priest sexual abuse, have committed suicide, in the belief that no one would believe their stories. Even now, the American hierarchy are re-victimizing victims through their lawyers in court. When will these church leaders admit their personal guilt and become accountable? In my view, the Pope is not acting as a Good Shepherd.
Sincerely, Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Louis Gilfedder | Oct 9, 2012 | 9:18pm
This worldwide criminal organisation is on the brink of collapse because of thier behaviour,child molestation,child abduction,slave labor at the Magdelena laundrys,thier crimes against humanity are far reaching,and they have been found out and can no longer sweep things under the rug.Its time alright for every victim of abuse by these criminals to stand up and fight for what is right.The church doesn’t give a damn about anything but the collection basket,open your eyes,they don’t care about right and wrong,all they care about is there selfish wants,they are all narcissistic self absorbed psycopaths.What’s wrong is thier taking of money in Gods name,what’s right is that God would be offended they are doing it.God didn’t want temples built for him and niether did Jesus.