'A Critical Role to Play'

I just read the address of Pope Benedict XVI to the American bishops on January 19, 2012 - the day before the HHS mandate was issued. You make some excellent points Your Holiness!

The Church in the United States is called, in season and out of season, to proclaim a Gospel that not only proposes unchanging moral truths, but also proposes them precisely as the key to human happiness and social prospering. 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.

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” that 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.

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 that 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 comes to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness. Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion.

Here, 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.

Respect for the just autonomy of the secular sphere must also take into consideration the truth that there is no realm of worldly affairs that can be withdrawn from the Creator and his dominion. 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.

(This next quote is my favorite part!)

We can take heart 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. - He's talking about us!

View the complete address