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Question 

Dear Father,

I want to raise attention to a fact that is rarely discussed, despite its urgency.

I notice everywhere, even in blessed places, a great disinhibition in customs.

I have already discussed this with several priests. They could only answer me with impotent smiles and vague considerations about “the heart, that comes first”.

How long has it been since Pius XII’s ‘purity crusade’, since the saints’ and popes’ recommendations on Christian morality? Is it possible that I am the only one to experience this unease?

I see where this Church is going, the inability and the unwillingness to transmit a morality that is not that of the world, which instead is chased away from our consciousness and traditions.

The degradation in society’s morals causes the perverted relationship with our bodies and our sexuality that is at the origin of many of today’s spiritual evils.

My impression is that the Church, which no longer has the strength and not even the will to fight against distorted attitudes contrary to Catholic morality, no longer knows how to instill in people its own vision of mankind. In other words, the Church does not know how to oppose the mainstream, melodious humanism full of empty feelings, ideological love, superficial compassion which hides its real face: an idolatry of the human beings, a selfishness that aims to convince us that our egoism should be the center and the goal of our existence. 

I believe that a catholic faithful should fight this moral perversion by distinguishing himself from the world, in every circumstance, even in the practical and everyday life.

Thank you for your attention, Father.

Antonio

Answer

Dear Antonio,

1. That the Church has renounced its will to convert people to Christ is not just your personal impression. It’s the impression of many.
Let’s be clear: I take it for granted that you know that it’s our duty to keep the doors of mercy open to every man and every situation. I also take it for granted that you understand that we must be aware of the Church’s mission to be like a field hospital ready to heal the spiritual wounds of everyone approaching it. But healing everyone’s wounds means trying to heal these wounds, and not just leaving them as they are.

2. Jesus began his preaching by saying: “Repent and believe the good news!“ (Mk 1:15). And he concluded it by saying: “and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.“ (Lk 24:47).

3. Our commitment, as well asf the Church commitment must always be in accordance with St Paul’s recommendation: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.“ (Rom 12:1-2).

4. The Word of God asks us to live in continual transformation, having as a goal the permanent conversion to Christ. At the same time, it asks us not to conform to the world.

5. Saint Paul affirms this concept many times. When he instructs us to get rid of the old clothes and put on new ones: “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.“ (Eph 4:17-19).

6. And again: “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph 4:22-24).

7. In a speech made in Turin on the occasion of the centenary of the death of St John Bosco, John Paul II told the bishops of Piedmont: “We can say that today Europe, in various countries, with the support of many scholars of theology (especially moral theology) is very effectively defending itself from the need for conversion. In the past, the task of theology, especially moral theology, was how to follow, how to accompany the process of conversion. Now, we are seeking how to free the human person, in the name of his dignity, from the necessity of conversion“ (Osservatore Romano, 3 September 1988).

8. Once the Church seeks to liberate the person from the commitment to conversion, then the Church has nothing else to say, and ceases to be the conscience of the world, called to speak against evil, inciting instead to good. St Thomas recalls that “the role of conscience is to protest against evil and to incite to good” (Thomas Aquinas, De Veritate, 16.2).

9. John Paul II writes in Veritatis Splendor: “Evangelization — and therefore the “new evangelization” — also involves the proclamation and presentation of morality. Jesus himself, even as he preached the Kingdom of God and its saving love, called people to faith and conversion (cf. Mk 1:15). And when Peter, with the other Apostles, proclaimed the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead, he held out a new life to be lived, a “way” to be followed, for those who would be disciples of the Risen One (cf. Acts 2:37-41; 3:17-20)”. (VS 107)

10. John Paul II says that, along with preaching and proclaiming doctrine -which is certainly indispensable-  something else is always necessary. Here it is: “Just as it does in proclaiming the truths of faith, and even more so in presenting the foundations and content of Christian morality, the new evangelization will show its authenticity and unleash all its missionary force when it is carried out through the gift not only of the word proclaimed but also of the word lived. In particular, the life of holiness which is resplendent in so many members of the People of God, humble and often unseen, constitutes the simplest and most attractive way to perceive at once the beauty of truth, the liberating force of God’s love, and the value of unconditional fidelity to all the demands of the Lord’s law, even in the most difficult situations. For this reason, the Church, as a wise teacher of morality, has always invited believers to seek and to find in the Saints, and above all in the Virgin Mother of God “full of grace” and “all-holy”, the model, the strength and the joy needed to live a life in accordance with God’s commandments and the Beatitudes of the Gospel.“ (VS 107).

11. We too – even if priests do not openly speak about conversion – are called by our humble and often hidden conduct to preach the beauty of the Gospel truth and the urgency of conversion.

I thank you for calling us to be what we must be: salt of the earth and light of the world.

As I wish this for you too, I remember you to the Lord and I bless you.

Padre Angelo