Argentinean roots endangered by secularism, bishop warns

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jul 17, 2009 / 17:50 pm

Bishop Eduardo Taussig of San Rafael, Argentina warned this week that the Christians roots that have forged the Argentinean identity are in jeopardy because of secularism, “an icy ideological position” that considers the exclusion of any reference to God from the public square to be a good.
 
During the Te Deum (hymn of thanks to God) at the local cathedral, Bishop Taussig said that while secularism is being promoted by a small minority, it is nonetheless very harmful.  It is an ideology that seeks “to reduce man’s religious dimension to merely the realm of conscience or, in any case to the interior of churches, or as is commonly said, ‘to the sacristy.’”
 
The bishop said secularism acts by disdaining religious rites and ceremonies at significant moments in social and political life, as well as through campaigns “to exclude religious symbols from public buildings.”
 
He also noted that secularism in the schools “has enormous consequences.” In particular, he lamented that fact that what students are taught about Argentinean culture has been unhinged from its religious roots and traditions, “which have been defended and upheld” by many of the country’s liberators and forefathers.
 
Nevertheless, the bishop expressed his satisfaction that various government officials took part in the Te Deum celebration “despite the cold of winter and the threat of the flu … in order to nourish our faith, as we have since our beginnings, with the Word of God.”