BishopAccountability.org
	US People and Benedict XVI. Now It's up to US Live the Pope's Message By Lorenzo Albacete Il Sussidiario (Italy) April 22, 2008 http://www.ilsussidiario.net/articolo.aspx?articolo=1633 In spite of being in the midst of an increasingly bitter election campaign, in spite of a widespread feeling of insecurity and concern for the future of the country, in spite of an ever growing secularism that splits faith from life and more and more becomes the cultural atmosphere of many Americans, in spite of a historical difficulty of a very Protestant country to understand the role of the Papacy, in spite of an ever-more refined form of anti-Catholicism that is still part of the American narrative, in spite of the fact that in popular culture the Catholic Church remains the one Institution which is politically correct to attack, in spite of the fact that the popular image of a widely unknown Joseph Ratzinger was of concern to many Americans who so loved Pope John Paul II, and above all even if the Catholic Church in America has not yet overcome the horrible scandal of the sexual abuse by priestsin spite of anything and everything militating against it, the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Washington and New York has been a stunning success. Or so it seems The true success of the trip, of course, will depend on how the freedom of those who heard, touched, or saw the Pope will respond to the encounter. We have no way of knowing what this will mean to the Church in America, but the fact is that through the Pope's physical presence, as well as his words, and gestures, the people of the United States who paid attention to this visit had the opportunity to encounter the Christian proposal in a way that left most Americans, Catholic and non-Catholics, surprised. Americans love to be liked and part of the succwss of the Pope's trip was his repeated praise for the American quest for freedom and the profound religiosity of the American people. This positive judgment on the history of religion in America was not just a tactical diplomatic trick before the Pope offered a negative judgment; rather it was appreciated as expression of a real admiration of the American experiment on the part of the Pope. The Pope did not hesitate to call the American original view of freedom and religion a form of "secularism" that proved beneficial to both Church and State. Still, again and again the Pope raised the troublesome question: is American religiosity and its view of freedom today capable of sustaining the dangers of a secularism that restricts faith to the private sphere? Addressing the American Bishops the Pope summarized the problem very clearly: It strikes me as significant that here in America, unlike many places in Europe, the secular mentality has not been strictly opposed to religion. Within the context of the separation between Church and State American society has always been marked by a fundamental respect for religion and its public role, and the American people are deeply religious. But it is not enough to count on this traditional religiosityeven as its foundations are being slowly undermined. A serious commitment to evangelization cannot prescind from diagnosis of the real challenges the Gospel encounters in contemporary American culturePerhaps America's brand of secularism poses a particular problem: it allows for professing belief in God, and respects the public core of religion and the Churches, but at the same time it can subtly reduce religious belief to the lowest common denominator. Faith becomes a passive acceptance that certain things 'out there' are true, but without particular relevance for everyday life. The result is a growing separation between faith and life. What can be done about this? The Pope offered a precise formula "What is needed, I am convinced, is a greater sense of the intrinsic relation between the Gospel and the natural law on the one hand, and on the other, the pursuit of authentic human good, as embodied in civil law and in personal moral decisions." And in even clearer terms: "The Church needs to promote at every level of her teaching-in catechesis, preaching, seminary and university instruction- an apologetics aimed at addirming the truth of Christian revelation, the harmony of faith and reason, and a sound understanding of freedom" What is needed, that is, is the experience of the correspondence of Revelation and the deepest desires of the human heart, an awareness of the kind of knowledge faith makes possible, and the challenge this poses to human freedom. This was the Pope's challenge to America, repeated before all kinds of audiences in their appropriate terminology. In very clear terms: "I believe that the Church in America, at this point in her history, is faced with the challenge of recapturing the Catholic vision of reality" It is a matter of "cultivating a Catholic identity which is based, not so much on externals, as on a way of thinking and acting" It is difficult to assess how well this has been understood. For the moment, the country is in love with Benedict's personality, humility, and compassion. The event that most brought this reaction about was the Pope's determination not to avoid the issue of the sexual abuse of minors by priests, and the dramatic meeting between the Pope and a group of the victims of this scandal. It is difficult to exaggerate how much this scandal has reduced the credibility of the American Church at such a crucial moment in its interaction with the American way of life. It is also difficult to exaggerate the admiration of the American people for the way he dealt with this scandal during this trip. There is indeed the danger that this will obscure the Pope's challenge to America and the American Church to develop an adequate response to the ever-growing cultural relativism. Time will tell. Somehow the American bishops and Catholic leaders and educators must link the Pope's gestures dealing with the scandal to his message about the dangers of relativism. The success of the Pope's trip will ultimately depend on making this link. Pope Benedict has done his part, and done it very well.
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