The prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline
of the Sacraments remarked that Catholics “cannot remain indifferent to
the problems that arise in social, cultural, economic and political
environments,” because “nothing that is truly human is foreign to her.”
Cardinal Antonio Canizares spoke Dec. 8 as he received an honorary
doctorate from the St. Vincent the Martyr Catholic University of
Valencia, Spain.
In his acceptance speech, Cardinal Canizares lamented the “extremely
serious bankruptcy of ideals affecting people in the West today, who
live only for comfort, money, sex, narcissistic pleasure and
consumerism.”
For this reason, “the transcendent and religious expression in the
people of the West are only skin-deep, and God is relegated to the
sidelines of life,” he said.
However, the cardinal continued, “The Christian faith embraces the
totality of life. The Christian experience cannot, therefore, be reduced
to one’s private life or be lived out in an individualist way.”
“While respecting the autonomy of the temporal order,” the Church
“cannot remain indifferent to the problems of today’s world,” he
stressed.
“Amidst the dark night of the current collective atheism,” Christians
“must sense the pressing duty and urgent call to remind others that the
only thing necessary for man is God,” the cardinal said.
“The abandonment of God is the gravest event of these times of
poverty in the West. It is an event with the most serious of
dehumanizing consequences,” he added.
Cardinal Canizares concluded his remarks praising the university for
its “defense of inalienable human rights and fundamental freedoms, which
include the right to life in all of its stages, the protection of the
family, freedom of education and of religion.”
SIC: CNA/INT'L