Madrid, Spain, Jun 6, 2011 / 12:03 pm
Cardinal Antonio Canizares has called on business and political leaders in Spain to engage in a “joint effort” to overcome “the high unemployment and job insecurity in our country.”
“Just as during other times and in other situations, the Church now feels moved to encourage and stimulate formational initiatives inspired in the social teachings of the Church, so that those who feel called to politics or leadership do not fall prey to the temptation to enjoy their positions out of personal interest or thirst for power.”
During a conference at the 21st Century Club, Cardinal Canizares, the prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, called for “overcoming every spirit of stubbornness and individualism, indifference and distraction in addressing the problems that face us all.”
He encouraged all Spaniards to directly participate in public life. Spain needs to look ahead and build a new future with hope, the cardinal stressed.
Spain religiously weakened
Cardinal Canizares also said Spain has become “very religiously weakened” and is immersed “in a profound and extensive crisis that entails a grave moral and human breakdown that makes it even harder and more difficult to overcome this crisis in the short-term.”
“It is not possible to overcome the crisis … without a new and deeper moral conscience that is universal and valid for all, in which the truth about man, his dignity and the vocation he has because of the fact he is man, is put first,” the cardinal said.
Amid this situation, he underscored the importance of defending “the human person and his dignity” and of making “moral decisions” about essential matters.
“The issue of man is inseparable from the family,” he continued. “The family is the great issue of our day and shows us where we may be heading both in the building of society as well as in the unity between faith and life, between society and religion,” Cardinal Canizares said.