Pope Benedict XVI Blog

New Prefect highlights Pope's determination to re-evangelize the West and to fight moral relativism

As it appears from many of Benedict XVI's statements, both now and as the prior Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, some of the top agendas of the Church in the near future will be to re-evangelize the West, fight the insidious "relativization" of moral truth, regain lost territories for Christ, and set as a top priority a mandate to counteract the continual aggressive movement of Islam into the West.

According to the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, Pastor Bonus, promulgated by Pope John Paul II on June 28, 1988, and specified in Article 48, "[t]he proper duty of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to promote and safeguard the doctrine on faith and morals in the whole Catholic world; so it has competence in things that touch this matter in any way."

Hopefully, by this papal appointment, the Church will move closer to being able to implement a more stringent promotion and safeguarding of faith and morals. We need to have an increasing number of clergy willing to put themselves on the line to fight for the "culture of life as against the "culture of death." We need to take back the culture for Christ.

According to his record, Levada appears to be a "doctrinal authority who is not afraid to oppose homosexuality, divorce, contraception, and other hot- button issues facing the church." Obviously, he was partly chosen for this ability to "hang tough" in the face of concerted secular opposition. Being the Archbishop of San Francisco since 1995, I'm sure, armored him with the hide of a rhino.

Vatican's focus falls on U.S., Europe Choosing Levada spotlights the West

Don Lattin, Angela Frucci, Chronicle Staff Writers
Sunday, May 15, 2005

When Pope John Paul II died early last month, papal pundits were consumed with the idea that the world's cardinals might replace him with an African or Latin American pope -- someone from a part of the world where the Catholic Church finds its greatest growth, and perhaps, its future.

Instead, they elected German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a longtime Vatican insider, as Pope Benedict XVI.

On Friday, Benedict named an American, San Francisco Archbishop William Levada, as his chief doctrinal watchdog for the 1.1 billion Catholics around the world.

To some observers, the election of a German pope and the appointment of an American archbishop show that Catholic leaders are focusing attention on solving problems they see in churches across Europe and the United States. For years, Cardinal Ratzinger bemoaned the steep decline of the church's influence in Italy, France, Germany -- the historic cradle of Catholicism. And while church attendance in the United States is relatively high and stable, the moral and financial fallout of the clergy sexual abuse scandal continues to haunt American bishops accused of covering up the crimes of pedophile priests.

But Benedict's goals as pope -- and his marching orders for Levada -- go much deeper than shoring up church attendance in Europe or finding a way out of the 20-year-old sex abuse scandal. They seek to counter what the pope recently called "the dictatorship of relativism," which the church casts as the idea that there are no absolute truths, and all the religions and spiritual philosophies are equally good and true.

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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 11:43 AM