The following comes from a Feb. 6 story by Catholic News Agency.
Washington D.C.— Society and humanity have removed God from daily life, and in doing so lost their purpose and sense of self, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez warned at the Hispanic Innovators of the Faith Lecture at the Catholic University of America.
In his speech, Gomez offered wide ranging reflections on the state of society, human nature, and the consequences losing touch with God.
“The crisis I see today is this: in our society, we no longer seem to share any coherent or common understanding about what it means to be a human being,” said Gomez. “As I see it, this problem is rooted in our society’s broader loss of the awareness of God.”
“We are living now in a society that makes individual well-being its only aim, a society that has no higher purpose than to produce goods to satisfy our personal appetites for security, pleasure, and entertainment.”
The recent laws considered and passed in several states that would reduce barriers on late-term abortions were, Gomez said, an “extreme example” of society’s “moral confusion about the status of a human person.”
This moral confusion, the archbishop suggested, could be behind the prevalence of identity politics and racism in American society, and the “widespread confusion about gender and human sexuality.”
“I would even argue that this crisis underlies the opioid epidemic and the alarming rates of mental illness, loneliness, and suicide in our country,” he said.
Perhaps, Gomez posited, the world has still yet to heal from the “spiritual wounds” that were inflicted during World War II and the subsequent decades that saw atheistic dictators attempt to strip religious faith from their societies and dehumanize whole peoples.
Today, Gomez said there is still a “project of the global leadership class” that seeks to create a world without the influence of God and “transform the human person according to political and economic dictates.”
“This is why U.S. bishops have made defending religious liberty a key priority,” Gomez said, as he cited recent lawsuits against religious companies and individuals, and the rise of religious-test questions being put to candidates for office.
“We know that, in the end, our science cannot save us, our technology cannot redeem us. The happiness that consumer society promises does not last; it is in constant need of recharging through relentless novelty,” said Gomez.
“Only Jesus Christ can provide for our deepest longings — to love and to be loved; to live with joy and confidence; to face death without fear.”
For full speech, click here.
When Mahony left, we expected a lot more than what has been brought to the table. Quite a disappointment for the Catholics of the Archdiocese.
Amen.
REC.
There is also no common or coherent understanding among Catholics of what it means to be Church. That’s on display at Gomez’s Religious Education Congress. Maybe he should clean up his own yard.
I am glad to hear from my Archbishop about this. I am a Pastor in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. I know the Archbishop personally, but I’m not here to defend him with excuses. I do know that when I was appointed to my current parish there were important things that needed to be changed. There was the option of immediate action and removal of those problems and I did some of that. For example the altar was off to the side (where the Ambo usually stands) and the Priest’s chair was in the center of the Sanctuary. That changed on day 3 of my administration. I thought that was a long delay, but it got done. There were problems in the administration and in other areas. It took a lot to get things changed, and still more needs to be changed…
Thank you Fr. Higgins. I am grateful for your vocation and your willingness to upset the apple cart for the glory of God. I don’t know where your parish is, and maybe is not proper of you to say, but I would really like to attend your Mass. Should that desire never find fulfillment, I shall nevertheless be glad to offer my poor prayers on your behalf.
Society did not lose God. Those within the Church’s leadership, from Pope Francis to James Martin, S.J. intentionally confuse and mislead the Catholic faithful, whil at the same time ignore the real leaders and teachers like Cdls. Burke, Mueller and Brandmueller, to name a few.
As reported by the National Catholic Register on Feb. 8, there is a well-founded person to keep the American Church away from trappings:
“Cardinal Raymond Burke has launched his own personal website (www.cardinalburke.com) where people can send him special prayer intentions, and which he intends to use to uphold the Church’s teaching and discipline.”
Thank you for posting this.
You are like the boy who kicks a ball down the street, and then complains about how far away it is and wonders how it got there. Hello, bishop! YOU are kicking the ball, and that ball is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and you are kicking Him out of the Catholic Church. There is so much you could accomplish with the clout and authority that you possess, but you do nothing to restore the Church’s authentic Catholicism. Why?