Cardinal Tomko: only a committed laity will renew Spanish society

Madrid, Spain, Nov 8, 2005 / 22:00 pm

During a visit to Spain this week, Cardinal Jozef Tomko, president of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, said that only a laity committed to serving the truth will overcome the crisis of values that is affecting the country.
 
Cardinal Tomko made his comments during the opening lecture for the 2005-2006 school year at the University of St. Anthony in Murcia. He noted that Spain is a country that is “traditionally Catholic and is witnessing a crisis of values that touch profoundly upon the very concept of the person.” Believers “cannot remain passive” in response to this situation, he added.
 
According to Cardinal Tomko, “when the human values of liberty, coexistence, respect for inalienable rights, family values, and proper education are in jeopardy, if there is no enlightened and courageous witness adequately conveyed even through the social communications media, there is a danger of provoking an anthropological catastrophe, as has occurred in other places and in other political systems of the 20th century.”
 
In the context of this crisis of “moral, social, family and religious values,” there is an urgent need for the laity to “become promoters of genuine human values through their service to the truth and to life.”
 
In this sense, he emphasized the need for Catholic centers of learning like the University of St. Anthony to turn out well-formed Christian adults and exemplary professionals.