"Seeing America through the Eyes of a Friend, and with the Eyes of Faith!"
I thank your Archbishop, His Eminence Cardinal Roger Mahony, for his invitation to join you at this annual Prayer Breakfast. It is a sign of strength in the Catholic community when you respond to the innate desire that is planted within us by the gift of the Holy Spirit in our baptism and confirmation to want to know God and his holy will better. In this way we can better be his instruments in helping humanity fulfill its true destiny as one human family, where every person has the opportunity to respond to God's invitation to know and love him in this life, and to be happy with him forever in the next.
I am reminded of a talk Cardinal John Henry Newman gave to a group of laity in England almost 150 years ago. "I want a laity — he said — who know their faith, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it and who know enough of history to defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity."
Newman was right to encourage the Catholics of his time to want to know their faith, to be able to share it in their social, political and business lives. So I put the question to myself: how can I make some contribution to that same goal among these folks today in the 25 minutes allotted to me?
I recalled the wonderful experience of last April, when I had the pleasure and privilege of accompanying our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI on his pastoral visit to the United States and the United Nations. I think all of us, Catholic or not, were edified and even somewhat surprised by the joy and humility he radiated, and by the clear and often profound message he came to share with us.
Today I do not intend to offer one eyewitness's account, a sort of walk down memory lane. Rather, I want to revisit some of the Pope's discourses on the occasion of that visit, in which he addressed in the American context the fundamental themes of his papacy of these past 3 and 1/2 years: the relation of faith and reason in our modern secularized culture; the importance of searching for truth in spite of a prevailing spirit of relativism; the solidity of the American political experiment as a guarantor of religious freedom. I will consider these themes under the following three headings: freedom and democracy, tradition and progress, and faith and reason.
In an interview with John Allen shortly after the Papal visit, Mary Ann Glendon, the 8th Ambassador of the United States to the Holy See since President Reagan established full diplomatic relations, made an observation that caught my attention. She said, "I see many parallels between Benedict and [Alexis] de Tocqueville . . . the European who is fascinated with the United States, who does not regard the United States as a model to be copied, but rather as an example that proves that something is possible. If it's possible there, it would be possible in another form over here. . . . When he came, his affection for the United States was palpable."
Benedict demonstrated that affection right from the beginning. On the first day of his visit, he spoke to President Bush and the highest officials from all three branches of government in the White House Rose Garden, saying: "I come as a friend, a preacher of the Gospel, and one with great respect for this vast pluralistic society." It struck me that a good title for my remarks today might be the following: "Seeing America through the eyes of a friend, and with the eyes of faith."
Freedom and Democracy
On the occasion of that first address of his visit, Pope Benedict said, "From the dawn of the Republic, America's quest for freedom has been guided by the conviction that the principles governing political and social life are intimately linked to a moral order based on the dominion of God the Creator. The framers of this nation's founding documents drew upon this conviction when they proclaimed the 'self-evident truth' that all men are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights grounded in the laws of nature and of nature's God." He went on to say, in a remark that some of us may want to hope is a prophecy as we struggle along day after day through an election that seems never to end, "As the nation faces the increasingly complex political and ethical issues of our time, I am confident that the American people will find in their religious beliefs a precious source of insight and an inspiration to pursue reasoned, responsible, and respectful dialogue in the effort to build a more human and free society."
Benedict sees faith and freedom as "friends" not enemies, just as Jesus does in the Gospel when He says, "If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8: 31-2). In this year's run-up to the election, when political rhetoric often seeks links with our country's founding principles, the Pope's succinct analysis bears recalling: "The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good, and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate. It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one's deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate. In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good."
At this point, Pope Benedict recalled the words of his predecessor: "Few have understood this as clearly as the late Pope John Paul II. In a reflection on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in eastern Europe, he reminded us that history shows, time and again, that 'in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation', and a democracy without values can lose its very soul. These prophetic words, he continued, in some sense echo the conviction of President Washington, expressed in his Farewell Address, that religion and morality represent 'indispensable supports' of political prosperity."
These are not merely the polite remarks of a guest. They represent a mature conviction about democracy's potential as a guarantee of freedom — including freedom of religion. Pope Benedict returned to this theme in addressing the American Bishops, when he said, "America is — a land of great faith. Your people are remarkable for their religious fervor and they take pride in belonging to a worshipping community. They have confidence in God, and they do not hesitate to bring moral arguments rooted in biblical faith into their public discourse. Respect for freedom of religion is deeply ingrained in the American consciousness — a fact which has contributed to this country's attraction for generations if immigrants, seeking a home where they can worship freely in accordance with their beliefs."
Tradition and Progress
Americans like to be on the side of the new. Sometimes we come to our senses and lament our "throwaway" culture. But there has always been a strong current that sees "progress" as almost synonymous with the idea of America.
Even in things religious, Protestant American culture has identified with the "new". It saw, and perhaps many still see, the Reformation as breaking away from the "old" Church, as progress in human history by going directly to the divinely inspired Word of God, the Bible, without the human intermediary of the accretions of churchly traditions. Catholics have not always had an easy fit in America. Nor has the Catholic Church's encounter with the modern age been without its difficulties. But here the Pope's analysis can help us understand better the importance he attaches to American democracy as a home for religious freedom.
In an analysis of how the Church opens itself to the "new" in a way that is in continuity with tradition — with the faith handed on from the time of the Apostles — Pope Benedict (in his first annual Christmas address to the Roman Curia) offered a brilliant commentary on the proper understanding of the Second Vatican Council, especially in its challenging task of looking at the relationship between the Church and the modern era in a new way. The relationship between the Church and modern progress has had its many tensions over the past few centuries. The opposition between faith and reason, which I will address next, is one such philosophical-religious issue. The conflicts between the interpretation of the Bible and scientific developments and discoveries — think of the Galileo affair — would be another.
The example relevant to my theme today is the Church's relationship with "progress" in the political realm, which Pope Benedict described in these terms: "the radical phase of the French Revolution [created] an image of the State and the human being that practically no longer wanted to allow the Church any room" to exist. In this regard, the Pope goes on to observe, "In the meantime, the modern age had also experienced developments. People came to realize that the American revolution was offering a model of a modern State that differed from the theoretical model with radical tendencies that had emerged during the second phase of the French Revolution."
The Holy Father went on to describe how the Council was able to discern, in its ground-breaking decree on religious liberty Dignitatis humanae, that the acceptance of religious liberty was not a "canonization of relativism", as Archbishop Lefebvre accused it of being in his path into schism. Rather, it was an embrace of freedom of conscience as witnessed by the martyrs of the early Church, who refused to worship the Roman emperors and who died for their "faith in God who was revealed in Jesus Christ, and for this very reason they also died for freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess one's own faith — a profession that no State can impose but which, instead, can only be claimed with God's grace in freedom of conscience."
As the Church struggled with and rejected the anti-religious, anti-clerical patterns of new governments that emerged from the European continental revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries, it gradually came to value the lived experience of Catholics in America, whose religious freedom showed a different face of democracy as a guarantor of religious freedom in a state who secular constitution not only allowed but encouraged the faith of its citizens to make a contribution to the common good of society. As Pope Benedict wrote in his first Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, "Fundamental to Christianity is the distinction between what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God (cf. Mt 22:21), in other words, the distinction between Church and State, or, as the Second Vatican Council puts it, the autonomy of the temporal sphere" (no. 28).
In his analysis the Pope drew the following conclusion: "The Second Vatican Council, with its new definition of the relationship between the faith of the Church and certain essential elements of modern thought, has reviewed or even corrected certain historical decisions, but in this apparent discontinuity it has actually preserved and deepened her inmost nature and true identity." It brings to my mind another saying of Jesus, at the end of the parables in the 13th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, when he praised the learned scribe who is like "the master of a household who brings out of his treasure both the new and the old" (Mt 13:52).
Faith and Reason
Throughout his professional life as a professor of theology in several German secular universities, Joseph Ratzinger was engaged in the great intellectual task of humanity: the quest for truth. Whether truth is arrived at through scientific methods and experiments, or through philosophical speculation, the long tradition beginning with the Greek philosophers holds that truth is ultimately one.
Pope John Paul II published a lengthy Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason) in which he explored the search for truth, and sought to show why faith as well as human reason, or rational thought, is an avenue to the one truth about human existence. One of his principal collaborators in drafting the Encyclical, we are told, was then-Cardinal Ratzinger. It does not surprise us, therefore, to hear him return again and again to emphasize the importance of not ignoring the voice of God that we hear in faith: this voice is not alien to man's nature, since God has created our human nature with our human reason "in his own likeness." Indeed, in speaking his Word to us, God addresses himself precisely to our created human reason, thus inviting us to recognize his revelation and our faith response as "reasonable."
It hardly needs saying that not everybody accepts the compatibility between faith and reason. In some modern philosophies, the revolt against Church and religion is fundamentally a revolt against God, a refusal of dependence and obedience which reflects the insight of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve: if we do not have to obey God, then we become like gods ourselves. In politics and in the university today there are not a few who say faith has no place in the public square; only human reason is allowed the podium to speak to the needs of building human society.
Today as well we see the return of the aggressive atheist, such as the British scientist Richard Dawkins, whose book The God Delusion has been months on the bestseller lists. He argues against faith, represented by the "straw men" he creates to describe religious arguments, with his rational arguments about evolution in its most radical form. It is curious to read his arguments, for he seems quite unaware that they too ultimately rest on a "belief" in the non-existence or impossibility of God.
Pope Benedict argues persuasively for the contribution faith makes toward the pursuit of the good of all humanity. First, it helps us find a common ethical language that can unite people in spite of the diversity of cultures and languages, thus avoiding the relativism ("my opinion is as good as yours") that ultimately fails to safeguard our common human dignity. Second, it opens the door to knowing the fullness of human development that God has planned for us. By excluding a priori the possibility of hearing the voice of the God Who is love, and has made the world and mankind out of the abundance of his love, we miss out on knowing the ultimate meaning of our human existence. These are themes Benedict has explored with characteristic insight in his Encyclical Deus Caritas Est. Not surprisingly, he chose to speak about them when he addressed Catholic educators during his visit to America.
In his speech at Catholic University of America, he said, "The Church's primary mission of evangelization, in which educational institutions play a crucial role, is consonant with a nation's fundamental aspiration to develop a society truly worthy of the human person's dignity. At times, however, the value of the Church's contribution to the public forum is questioned. It is important therefore to recall that the truths of faith and of reason never contradict one another (cf. First Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith Dei Filius, IV: DS 3017; St. Augustine, Contra Academicos, III, 20, 43). The Church's mission, in fact, involves her in humanity's struggle to arrive at truth. In articulating revealed truth she serves all members of society by purifying reason, ensuring that it remains open to the consideration of ultimate truths. Drawing upon divine wisdom, she sheds light on the foundation of human morality and ethics and reminds all groups in society that it is not praxis that creates truth but truth that should serve as the basis of praxis."
My final citation from the papal visit seems to me a very useful, and very comprehensive, synthesis of the issues that I have presented as representative of the message of Pope Benedict in America. Rather than offer my own comments or analysis, I want to quote it directly in its entirety. It was the Pope's response to a question raised by one of the American bishops at their meeting with him in the crypt of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, asking for his assessment of the twin challenge of increasing secularism in public life and relativism in intellectual life. Here is what Benedict responded to his brother bishops:
"I touched upon this theme briefly in my address. It strikes me as significant that here in America, unlike many places in Europe, the secular mentality has not been intrinsically opposed to religion. Within the context of the separation of Church and State, American society has always been marked by a fundamental respect for religion and its public role, and, if polls are to be believed, the American people are deeply religious. But it is not enough to count on this traditional religiosity and go about business as usual, even as its foundations are being slowly undermined. A serious commitment to evangelization cannot prescind from a profound diagnosis of the real challenges the Gospel encounters in contemporary American culture.
Of course, what is essential is a correct understanding of the just autonomy of the secular order, an autonomy which cannot be divorced from God the Creator and his saving plan (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 36). Perhaps America's brand of secularism poses a particular problem: it allows for professing belief in God and respects the public role of religion and the Churches, but at the same time it can subtly reduce religious belief to a lowest common denominator. Faith becomes a passive acceptance that certain things 'out there' are true but without practical relevance for everyday life. The result is a growing separation of faith from life: living 'as if God did not exist'. This is aggravated by an individualistic and eclectic approach to faith and religion: far from a Catholic approach to 'thinking with the Church', each person believes he or she has a right to pick and choose, maintaining external social bonds but without an integral, interior conversion to the law of Christ. Consequently, rather than being transformed and renewed in mind, Christians are easily tempted to conform themselves to the spirit of this age (cf. Rom 12: 3). We have seen this emerge in an acute way in the scandal given by Catholics who promote an alleged right to abortion.
On a deeper level, secularism challenges the Church to reaffirm and to pursue more actively her mission in and to the world. As the Council made clear, the lay faithful have a particular responsibility in this regard. What is needed, I am convinced, is a greater sense of the intrinsic relationship 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. In a society that rightly values personal liberty, the Church needs to promote at every level of her teaching — in catechesis, preaching, seminary and university instruction — an apologetics aimed at affirming the truth of Christian revelation, the harmony of faith and reason and a sound understanding of freedom, seen in positive terms as a liberation both from the limitations of sin and for an authentic and fulfilling life. In a word, the Gospel has to be preached and taught as an integral way of life, offering an attractive and true answer, intellectually and practically, to real human problems. The 'dictatorship of relativism', in the end, is nothing less than a threat to genuine human freedom, which only matures in generosity and fidelity to the truth."
Less than a week after we landed at Andrews Air Force Base last April, Pope Benedict's pastoral visit had come to an end and we were back in the Vatican. But the message he brought to America has a lasting value. I hope that recalling some aspects of it here this morning can help us all in our ongoing task of "faithful citizenship".
This item 8431 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
