European Churches" "
“The cultural secularization of our society affects not only those alien to any religious belief, but also the formally Catholic part of the population”. Although the latter “belong to the Church through baptism”, they “no longer grasp the meaning nor hear the call of the Gospel, thus aligning themselves with the principles of general conduct of our society”. This alarming diagnosis of the religious situation in France is made by the archbishop of Tours, Msgr. André Vingt-Trois. Christians “do not necessarily renounce their faith in God, or at least their belief in transcendence he observes -, but this residue of religious feeling easily finds satisfaction in groups that propose great conviviality and little doctrinal and ethical content: much warmth and little commitment”. In addition, “there is he adds the tendency to reject the guidance, or precept, of what is considered ‘authority’, with the frequent consequence of succumbing to other occult powers, from advertising to the media”. So how should we intervene? “We need to open a field of knowledge that is hermetically closed, especially to young adults today says Archbishop Vingt-Trois: what they need is not to be helped to rediscover their childhood faith, but to be evangelized for the first time”. “Before speaking of ‘bread of life’ concludes the archbishop of Tours Christ nourished the crowd with the multiplication of real bread. Before proposing a path of eternal salvation, we need to restore the relish for life to people enclosed in a culture of death”.
