Jan 23, 2008 / 12:36 pm
The Archbishop of Valencia, Spain, Cardinal Agustin Garcia-Gasco, has called on the faithful to remain firm in the face of attacks from secularism, following the example of St. Vincent the Martyr, whose testimony “is an eloquent sign for rejecting the idolatry of the State.”
“To be a Christian today, in a society that produces disturbing effects because of its radical opposition to God and to Christian culture, requires an attitude similar (to that of St. Vincent the Martyr), even though they accuse us with all kinds of humiliations, meanness and lies,” the cardinal said during a Mass in honor of the patron of Valencia.
According to the AVAN news agency, Cardinal Garcia-Gasco denounced the moral emptiness upon which society is being built and that legitimizes everything that attacks human dignity, such as “abortion, war, terrorism, infidelity, deception and betrayal.”
He also criticized the “attempt to de-Christianize society” and individualism. This kind of radical secularism turns against man and against society because it proposes “nothing new: it drags along all of the complexes and hatred of which the martyrs of every age were victims,” the cardinal said.
Cardinal Garcia-Gasco went on to denounce efforts to make religion, especially the Catholic faith, incompatible with democracy, “and therefore an aversion to everything that is Christian is fostered.”
The Church does not wish to “impose” the faith, he said. Rather, her mission is “always to invite the use of reason, the search for truth, for the good, for God.”
“It’s time to affirm with simplicity our Christian identity, showing our unequivocal love for freedom, peace, unity, and our closeness to those who suffer,” the cardinal said.