Challenge Is to Present Moral Truth in Times of Relativism, Pope Says

On 10th Anniversary of Encyclical "Veritatis Splendor"

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 29, 2003 (Zenit.org).- At a time of dissent and relativism, the great challenge for Christians and their pastors is to formulate judgments in keeping with truth, says John Paul II.

"Today it seems increasingly arduous for pastors of the Church, for scholars and for teachers of Christian morality to support the faithful in formulating judgments according to truth, given the atmosphere of dissent on salvific truth and widespread relativism on the moral law," the Pope said.

The Holy Father addresses this matter in a message sent to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made public Saturday by the Vatican press office.

The occasion for the message was a symposium organized this week in Rome by the doctrinal congregation on "The Anthropology of Moral Theology According to the Encyclical 'Veritatis Splendor.'"

The meeting of bishops, theologians, professors and others is to mark the 10th anniversary of the Pope's encyclical on fundamental questions of the moral teaching of the Church.

In his message, the Pope says he believes it is critical to study in-depth "the essential relation that exists between truth, good and freedom."

"This relation not only has its ontological foundation in the nature of the human being, but also in the Incarnation and is renewed and made manifest in the historic-salvific event of the cross of our Redeemer," he says.

"Beyond all the cultural changes, there are essential realities that do not change; rather, they find their ultimate foundation in Christ, who is always the same, yesterday, today and forever," the Holy Father states.

"Therefore, the fundamental reference of Christian morality is not the culture of man but the plan of God," he adds. "The formative secret of the Church consists, therefore, in keeping one's gaze fixed on the crucified Christ, and in proclaiming his redeeming sacrifice."

"The answer [the Church] gives to the question of contemporary man's happiness has the power and wisdom of Christ crucified, Truth that sacrifices himself out of love," he concludes.

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45@hotmail.com), September 29, 2003

Answers

-- (top@top.top), September 29, 2003.

Moderator I dont have the time these days to spend much time here however I note you promising to clamp down on anti Catholic tradionlists posts that all but destroyed an otherwise lively and interesting forum. "Ziggy" is one such unfortunate zombie, he cannot present even the mosts simple of arguments in support of his position beyond cut and pasting the discredited errors of very limited theological minds.

"Ziggy" copied this trash from this anti Catholic site:

http://www.christianorder.com/editorials/editorials_2003/editorials_ja n03.html

As Eugene Chavez rightly would say "poor guy", you must be aware most people here are throughly sick of this garbage. For you to maintain your very good standing and credibilty with all here its time to send Ziggy and his cohorts packing IMHO of course!).

Paul also you probably dont realise but I believe the greenspun sever (with its age and amount of through traffic and the way links are set up to search engines) is more likely to appear in google searches than most other servers on the net.

SO when these anti catholics leaves their droppings you will notice effluent hungry brainwashed flies will appear on mass (very quickly via google) to feed on this excrement. Clean up the dung Sir and the vermin will dissapear!

-- Kiwi (csisherwood@hotmai.com), September 30, 2003.

'BTW thanks Bill amd 'cuse the spelling

Ziggy nice to meet you, time to move on eh

-- Kiwi (csisherwood@hotmail.com), September 30, 2003.

[I just want to assure everyone that the message to Paul, above, against the latest schismatic/heretical barrage -- is really from Kiwi. It wasn't me signing off as "Kiwi" -- though it certainly gave me a feeling of deja vu. Keep up the good fight, Kiwi.]
JFG

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@Hotmail.com), September 30, 2003.