Pope Calls for ‘Renewed Evangelization of Culture’
Speaking to more than 300 U.S. Catholic bishops at the Washington basilica known as “America’s Church,” Pope Benedict XVI lauded the history of religious freedom and democracy in the United States while challenging the Church’s leaders to resist influences of secularism and materialism that threaten to erode the people’s authentic religious spirit.

How can a bishop “best fulfill the call to ‘make all things new in Christ, our hope’? How can he lead his people to ‘an encounter with the living God’, the source of that life-transforming hope of which the Gospel speaks?” he asked, quoting from his second encyclical Spe Salvi that underlies the “Christ Our Hope” theme of his U.S. visit.

Calling for a more energetic effort of evangelization, he raised some pointed issues that might fall under the category of “cafeteria Catholicism,” though he did not use the term.

“Yet it cannot be assumed,” he said, “that all Catholic citizens think in harmony with the Church’s teaching on today’s key ethical questions.”

He asked if it is “consistent to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday” and during the week engage in “business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs?”

He also included on his list of practices that contradict the faith: ignoring the poor or marginalized, promoting illicit sexual behavior, and adopting positions against the “right to life of every human being from conception to natural death.”

He then stressed the need for Christians to transform society through their public acts and decisions. “Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted,” he said. “Only when their faith permeates every aspect of their lives do Christians become truly open to the transforming power of the Gospel.”

Pope Benedict made his lengthy address after an Evening Prayer (Vespers) service on April 16 in the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which adjoins the campus of The Catholic University of America.

The basilica is the nation’s only church administered by the U.S. bishops, most of whom were present. He was introduced by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who called the pope “a father and friend in Christ.”

In answer to the issues he raised, the pope said that bishops must instruct their people in the basics of the faith, promote prayer and piety, encourage them as lay people to act as “leaven” in society by bringing their faith into the public square, and above all, lead them toward a personal encounter with the living God. “If this seems countercultural,” he noted, “that is simply further evidence of the urgent need for a renewed evangelization of culture.”

Marriage and Family Life

The Holy Father identified a renewal of family life and a strengthening of the bond of marriage as key elements in carrying out this evangelization. Since the family is the basic unit of society, strong and healthy families will help build better societies, which in turn will advance the cause of peace among nations, he said. Noting the high rates of divorce, infidelity and cohabitation outside of marriage, the pope said that children and social cohesion are the main victims of such circumstances.

Though often miscast as oppressive, the Church’s teaching on marriage, sexuality and life issues are “an unconditional and unreserved ‘yes’ to life, a ‘yes’ to love, and a ‘yes’ to the aspirations at the heart of our common humanity,” he said.

In this context, he decried the abuse of minors by clergy members as a “deep shame” that has caused enormous pain and suffering. Acknowledging that abuse cases in the past had been “sometimes very badly handled,” he urged the bishops to continue their efforts to ensure that such crimes happen no more.

Although the overwhelming majority of priests bear no guilt, the Holy Father said, “it is vitally important that the vulnerable be shielded from those who would cause harm.”

The pope said that bishops are the ones who are principally responsible for the pastoral care of the family, and he commended them for a new national marriage initiative designed to strengthen the sacramental bond and renew family life. “It is your task,” he stated, “to proclaim boldly the arguments from faith and reason in favor of the institution of marriage, understood as a lifelong commitment between a man and woman, open to the transmission of life.”

He concluded his address by invoking the protection and intercession of Mary Immaculate, patroness of the United States. “May she who carried within her womb the hope of all nations intercede for the people of this country, so that they may be made new in Jesus Christ her Son.”