Verona (AsiaNews) – In the face of a western culture stricken by a "new wave of enlightenment and secularism", which considers only what is experiential as rationally valid, and all that is useful as ethically acceptable, Catholics have the duty to introduce reason to what is just and good, confronting the challenges facing faith in our times. This task, "a fascinating adventure which merits all one's efforts" was proposed by Benedict XVI as a way of giving western culture back its soul. This culture set out from an "assertion of the centrality of man and his freedom" and ended up by implementing a "real turnaround", with a "radical diminishing of man, considered as a simple product of nature and as such, not truly free and susceptible to being treated like any other animal".

In a long speech to participants of the fourth national Convention of the Italian Church, which is taking place in Verona, the pope once again tackled the relationship between modern culture and Christianity, and hence between faith and reason, which was at the heart of his speeches throughout his trip to Germany in September. Benedict XVI today repeated that in modern society, "God is excluded from culture and public life, and faith in Him becomes more difficult, not least because we live in a world that presents itself ever more as our work. It is a world in which, so to say, God no longer appears directly; he appears to have become superfluous and extraneous... In the same way, ethics are brought back to within the borders of relativism and utilitarianism, with the exclusion of any moral principle that is valid and binding." This type of culture is not only a "deep and profound cut" with Christianity, but "more generally with religious and moral traditions of mankind". It is unable to establish true dialogue with other cultures, in which the religious dimension is strongly present, and it is unable to respond to the fundamental questions on the meaning and direction of our lives. This is why this culture is marked by profound deficiencies and also by a large, uselessly hidden, need for hope."

This culture also draws attention to the insufficiency of a "rationale closed in on itself" that refuses transcendence and hence any moral principle valid in itself. Of this culture, "the disciples of Christ recognize and willingly take in the authentic values, like scientific knowledge and technological development, human rights, religious freedom and democracy". However they "do not ignore or underestimate the dangerous fragility of human nature that threatens the journey of man in all historical contexts. In particular, they do not neglect the interior tensions and contradictions of our time."

"The human being is not, on the other hand, only reason and intelligence. He carries within himself, inscribed in the deepest part of this being, the need of love, of being loved and of loving in his turn. This is why he asks questions and often becomes confused when faced with the hardships of life, with the evil that exists in the world and that seems to be so strong, and at the same time, so senseless." So the question returns persistently, whether our life can be a safe space for authentic love and in the ultimate analysis, whether the world is really the work of the wisdom of God. Here, much more than any human reasoning, the moving news of biblical revelation comes to our rescue: the Creator of heaven and earth, the only God who is the source of every creature, loves man personally, loves him passionately and wants to be loved by him in turn."

Affirming this truth "is indispensable to give the Christian witness concrete and feasible content, assessing how it can be implemented and developed in each of the great fields in which human experience is articulated."

Benedict XVI gave some indications for such activities, "across the board, on the level of thoughts and action, of personal conduct and public witness". The first pointer he gave was education. He said: "A true education needs to awaken courage to take definitive decisions, which today are considered to be a chain that puts down our freedom, but in reality they are indispensable to enable love to mature in all its beauty, hence to give consistency and meaning to freedom itself. From this solicitude for the human person and his formation comes our 'no' to weak and deviant forms of love and contradictions to freedom, as well as to the reduction of reason merely to that which is calculable and can be manipulated. In truth, saying 'no' is rather saying 'yes' to authentic love, to the reality of man as he was created by God". 

In the second place, there should be the witness of charity, because "the authenticity of our adherence to Christ is verified especially in love and concrete solicitude for the most vulnerable and the poorest, for those are in the greatest danger and most serious difficulties".

Reaffirming the non-involvement of the Church as such in political life, Benedict XVI indicated the task of lay Catholics to "move in the political environment to build a just order in society". He said: "Especial attention and an extraordinary commitment are called for today by great challenges which throw large parts of the human family into great danger: wars and terrorism, hunger and thirst, terrible epidemics. But there is the need to confront – with the same determination and clarity of intent – the risk inherent in political and legislative decisions that contradict fundamental values and anthropological principles and ethnics rooted in the nature of the human being, especially with regard to safeguarding human life in all its phases, from conception to natural death, and to the promotion of the family founded on matrimony, avoiding the introduction in public law of any other forms of union that would contribute to destabilizing it, obscuring its peculiar character and irreplaceable social role."