|
|
 |
|
CNS Story:
|
POPE-SECULARISM Dec-11-2006 (470 words) xxxi
Pope denounces 'false secularism' that bans religious symbols, input
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI denounced what he called a "false secularism" that bans religious symbols from public places and excludes religious input on crucial moral questions.
While the church does not seek to interfere with the freedom of every people to organize its political life, it cannot be mute in front of threats to human life and human dignity, the pope said.
He made the remarks in a talk Dec. 9 to the Union of Italian Catholic Jurists, which was meeting in Rome to discuss the theme of secularism in modern society.
In his speech, the pope synthesized a theme that has become a cornerstone of his pontificate: that modern societies are drifting toward an ideological form of secularism that excludes God and moral law and relegates religion to the realm of the individual conscience.
In this narrow vision, he said, the separation between church and state is understood as prohibiting the church from making its views known on moral issues.
"This secularism would even mean the exclusion of religious symbols from public places ... such as offices, schools, courts, hospitals and prisons," he said.
"At the foundation of such a concept lies an areligious vision of life, thought and morality: a vision in which there is no place for God, or for a mystery that transcends pure reason, or for a moral law of absolute value, in force at all times and in all situations," he said.
The pope said the answer was to encourage a healthy secularism that reserves to the state and the political sphere its rightful autonomy, but that accepts the church's right to express its teachings on moral problems -- including those that concern legislation and law.
"This is not undue interference by the church in legislative activity ... but affirmation and defense of the great values that give meaning to life and protect its dignity," he said.
The pope ended his talk by citing arguments he made in his first encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est" ("God Is Love.") He warned that along with the exclusion of God there was a strong modern tendency to view God as an antagonist of men and women.
The church's task, he said, is to demonstrate that God is love and desires the happiness of all people.
"It is our task to make people understand that the moral law given to us by God and which manifests itself to us with the voice of the conscience is not designed to oppress us but to liberate us from evil and make us happy," he said.
"It's a matter of demonstrating that without God, man is lost, and that the exclusion of religion from social life, in particular the marginalization of Christianity, undermines the very foundation of human coexistence," he said.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
|
|
|
|
