The Year of Faith: Recovering a Culture that is Genuinely Catholic | Arland K. Nichols | Homiletic & Pastoral Review
Surveys of Catholics reveal that a majority do not live in accord with, or simply do not know, their Catholic faith. … On October 11, Pope Benedict called for a “Year of Faith” to “rediscover the journey of faith” in the midst of “a profound crisis of faith that has affected many people.”
Standing like dust-covered artifacts of a by-gone age, the Catholic Churches of Europe see only a small portion of baptized Catholics on any given Sunday. A majority of married Catholics in the United States, and Europe, use contraception; many support a politically correct redefinition of marriage; and believe abortion is justified; in at least some circumstances. Any survey of Catholics reveals that a majority do not live in accord with, or simply do not know, their Catholic faith.
This ignorance of the faith has not gone unnoticed by Pope Benedict who, when visiting the United States in 2008, painfully noted “that many of the baptized, rather than acting as a spiritual leaven in the world, are inclined to embrace attitudes contrary to the truth of the Gospel.” The Holy Father recognizes that we live in, and are greatly influenced by, a secular age. Recent popes, in noticing the growth of secularism and the weakening of faith, have responded: Blessed John Paul II called for a “new evangelization,” a call expanded by Pope Benedict, who founded the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. Beginning on October 11, Pope Benedict called for a “Year of Faith” so that men and women might “rediscover the journey of faith” in the midst of “a profound crisis of faith that has affected many people” (Porta fidei1 & 2).
Evangelization Inspires Minds and Hearts
In 1978, the first public words uttered by the first Slavic pope were “Be not afraid”—words that still remind us that we must not be afraid to believe and proclaim the good news. We must be a people willing to give our very lives to transform our culture, from what Pope Benedict has called “a dictatorship of relativism,” to one that fosters a culture of life and love. With this “year of faith,” the Holy Father is reminding us that “we must be committed to promoting the evangelization of cultures, conscious that Christ himself is the truth for every man and woman, and for all human history” (Sacramentum Caritatis 78). Amid a secular culture that is increasingly intolerant and militant, we must not be afraid to believe, and to be willing to communicate what we believe.
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