Some in Church give ‘helping hand’ to secularism in Portugal, Pope says
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
FATIMA, Portugal – In a strongly worded talk to Portuguese Bishops, Pope Benedict XVI denounced what he called a “silence of the faith” in the face of widespread attacks on religious values.
Particularly in politics and in the mass media, some Christians have quietly consented as new barriers to the faith are constructed, he said on 13 May.
“Authentic witnesses to Jesus Christ are needed, above all in those human situations where the silence of the faith is most widely and deeply felt: among politicians, intellectuals, communications professionals who profess and who promote a monocultural ideal, with disdain for the religious and contemplative dimension of life,” he said. “In such circles are found some believers who are ashamed of their beliefs and who even give a helping hand to this type of secularism,” he said. The Pope said the changes in contemporary society require a “new missionary vigour” by mature lay Christians, and Bishops themselves should show that they will not be “gagged” when it comes to announcing the Church’s moral teachings.
The Pope made his remarks at his final major event in Fatima, where earlier in the day he celebrated Mass for half a million people, then met with Catholic pastoral workers.
The Pope did not mention specific political issues in his address, but Portuguese Church leaders have been distressed at the liberalisation of abortion laws in 2007 and the recent legislative approval of a same-sex marriage bill.
Some commentators have criticised the Bishops of Portugal for failing to take a harder and more public line against those developments. The Pope said Bishops must redouble their efforts at a time when Catholicism is no longer seen as the common patrimony of Portuguese society. But he said that in convincing others, witness is more important than words.
“Simply proclaiming the message does not penetrate to the depths of people’s hearts, it does not touch their freedom, it does not change their lives. What attracts is, above all, the encounter with believing persons who, through their faith, draw others to the grace of Christ by bearing witness to Him,” he said.
The Pope asked the Bishops to give special attention to lay movements that have arisen in recent decades – an important development that occurred in “a moment of weariness in the Church,” he said. The Bishop’s role is to welcome these new expressions of vitality in the Church, while helping the movements to “find the right way, making some corrections with understanding” and showing “a certain openness and a willingness to learn,” he said.