The Challenge In Society
Our larger society is in such need of healing. There is so much pain, injustice, and unhappiness, and so many people bound in so many ways. The world is greatly in need of the Good News of Jesus that we bear.
Key Insights
Secularism
Societal pressures increasingly promote a sense of unhealthy secularism, the idea that religion should remain private and be segregated from our daily life experiences. However, the Church also supports a health separation of Church and state. |
Materialism
Prioritizing money and material possessions above God is a form of idolatry. While it may be easy to judge particularly conspicuous consumers, materialism can also have subtle influences in our lives. Where do we seek our security? And how much is enough? |
Individualism
A culture of individualism results in a society of isolated individuals who focus only on their own interests rather than the common good. But we are social creatures who are called to build relationships with our neighbors and seek out security through God and community. |
Quotations
In some ways it may be harder to be a Christian steward today than at times in the past. Although religious faith is a strong force in the lives of many Americans, our country’s dominant secular culture often contradicts the values of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. This is a culture in which destructive “isms”— materialism, relativism, hedonism, individualism, consumerism— exercise seductive, powerful influences. There is a strong tendency to privatize faith, to push it to the margins of society, confining it to people’s hearts or, at best, their homes, while excluding it from the marketplace of ideas where social policy is formed and men and women acquire their view of life and its meaning. Not only must each of us live the Gospel personally in the Church, but also our faith must touch the values of the United States, affirming what is good, courageously challenging what is not.... [O]ur country can be faulted for its materialism, its sexism, its racism, its consumerism, its individualism run wild, its ethic of selfishness, its neglect of the poor and weak, its disregard of human life, and its endless chase after empty fads and immediate pleasures. Go And Make Disciples: A National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization in the United States, 58
USCCB The challenge can be defined simply: Throughout the Western world, the culture no longer carries the faith, because the culture has become increasingly hostile to the faith. Catholicism can no longer be absorbed by osmosis from the environment, for the environment has become toxic. So we can no longer sit back and assume that decent lives lived in conformity with the prevailing cultural norms will somehow convey the faith to our children and grandchildren and invite others to consider entering the Church. George Wiegl, "The Rise of Evangelical Catholicism"
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The reasons for not attending Mass highlighted in CARA’s study also point to an increased secularization, materialism, and individualism. Disciples Called to Witness: The New Evangelization
Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, USCCB Attention should also be paid to the cultural contexts and situations that our missing brothers and sisters face. Pope Benedict XVI described some of the contemporary situations confronting modern man, including secularism, globalization, social communications, the economy, scientific and technological research, and civic and political life. Many of these societal realities are positive, but when taken to the extreme, they can lead to disillusionment and weariness. For example, more people than ever before are able to participate in politics and enjoy political freedom, but current extreme political forces are also causing war, injustice, and the slow erosion of human rights, including religious freedom. The disparity in economic development, while lifting some out of poverty, has also led to an inequitable distribution of goods as well as damage to God’s creation, which adds to the plight of the poor. Secularism has led to a diminishing recognition of Sunday as the Lord’s Day, a holy day of prayer and rest. “[The New Evangelization] involves . . . the proclamation and demonstration that the Christian faith is the only fully valid response to the problems and hopes that life poses to every person and society.” The New Evangelization offers hope. Our hope is not in a program or philosophy but in the person of Jesus Christ, who comforts those who are burdened. Disciples Called to Witness: The New Evangelization
Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, USCCB |