“We have fallen into a culture of religious indifference,” Spanish bishop says

Madrid, Spain, Sep 11, 2007 / 08:51 am

In a recent letter marking the feast of Our Lady of Victory, Patroness of the diocese, Bishop Antonio Dorado Soto of Malaga said today’s society has gone from “a believing culture to a culture of silence with respect to God, from a Christian world to a pagan world with no reference to the Gospel.”

“We have fallen into a culture of ‘religious indifference’ in which many people, although they call themselves Christians, live as if God did not exist, because He has no influence on their personal, family, professional and social lives,” the bishop said.  “Popular religiosity, which has its roots in the Gospel, coexists today with the dominant lifestyles, which in many aspects are neo-pagan,” he continued.

In his letter, Bishop Dorado said that God, “man’s creator and friend, is viewed by many as the great enemy of humanity and of progress, or as something meaningless that can or should be disregarded.”

“The greatest need of the Church in our times,” he went on, “is her own evangelization: to strengthen the faith of Christians, reinitiate in the faith those who are non-practicing and propose the faith to non-believers.”

Therefore, “one of her principle tasks consists in proclaiming the Gospel to those who, baptized in their infancy and subjected to the evolution of society and the crisis of personal growth, need to reawaken the faith and apply it to concrete situations in their lives, in order to live the faith like Mary.”

“Our Lady of Victory constitutes a splendid example of faith that is alive and lived out,” the bishop said.  For this reason, “we must imitate Mary, the faithful Virgin, the woman who believed,” he said in conclusion.