President Obama’s re-election and the prospect of a second Obama administration, freed from the constraints imposed by the necessity of running for re-election, have created a crisis for the Catholic Church in the United States.
In the thought-world and vocabulary of the Bible, “crisis” has two meanings: the conventional sense (a grave threat) and a deeper sense (a great moment of opportunity). Both are applicable to the Church in America these next four years.
To the editor:
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, wrote a series of meditations that became the book On The Way To Jesus Christ. In a chapter titled “Communication and Culture,” our future pope talked about what the Church faces in today’s society. “Ever since the Enlightenment, Western culture has been moving away from its Christian foundations with increasing rapidity. The disintegration of the family and marriage, the escalating attacks on human life and its dignity, the confinement of faith to the realm of the subjective, and the consequent secularization of public awareness, as well as the fragmentation and relativizing of ethical values demonstrate this all too clearly.”
Cardinal Ratzinger was talking to the bishops of Italy but certainly his remarks were intended for all of the Western world, including the United States.
