Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Vatican official identifies main weaknesses of Catholic world

Opening a seminar on the social doctrine of the Church, a Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace official has identified three main weaknesses of the Catholic world, including loss of identity, lack of understanding on bioethical issues and failure to promote Catholic social doctrine.

"We have all endured many difficult periods in our recent history," said Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi (pic'd here) at the seminar on 20 January, sponsored by the Italian episcopal conference according to a Zenit report.

"We have not always succeeded, despite the careful guidance of the magisterium, in resisting leaps forward, partisan interpretations and the weakening of our identity.

"A theology of the separation between faith and politics has been alternating with a theology of direct engagement, while, at the same time and almost undetected, a culture of agnosticism and relativism was advancing, becoming imposing and almost dictatorial, striking the very heart of the Christian message and radically hindering its reception."

Bishop Crepaldi contended: "Once we lose sight of the fact that man is capax veritatis, it is impossible to think that he can be capax Dei".According to the prelate, the current Catholic challenge is to reflect in depth on "our own roots because the anthropological question has now become the social question.""We will not be able to make a valid contribution to the common good," he said, "unless we expand the culture of life, from bioethics and beyond bioethics, and succeed in making it a true social and political culture."

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