Papal Foolishness

The Church has the right to proclaim the truth in the public square.

Lay people have the right and responsibility to organize civil affairs without undue interference from the Church.

Pope Benedict XVI preached this Foolishness to, of all people, Italian lawyers.

CNA has more:

The Holy Father underlined the need "to create a concept of secularity that, on the one hand, grants God and His moral law, Christ and His Church, their just place in human life at both an individual and a social level, and on the other hand affirms and respects the 'legitimate autonomy of earthly affairs'."

The Church, the Pope reiterated, cannot intervene in politics, because that would "constitute undue interference."

However, he said, "'healthy secularity' means that the State does not consider religion merely as an individual sentiment that can be confined to the private sphere." Rather, it must be "recognized as a ... public presence. This means that all religious confessions (so long as they do not contrast the moral order and are not dangerous to public order) are guaranteed free exercise of their acts of worship."

Hostility against "any form of political or cultural relevance of religion," and in particular against "any kind of religious symbol in public institutions" is a degenerated form of secularity, said the Holy Father, as is "refusing the Christian community, and those who legitimately represent it, the right to pronounce on the moral problems that today appeal to the conscience of all human beings, particularly of legislators.

"This," he added, "does not constitute undue interference of the Church in legislative activity, which is the exclusive competence of the State, but the affirmation and the defense of those great values that give meaning to people's lives and safeguard their dignity. These values, even before being Christian, are human, and therefore cannot leave the Church silent and indifferent, when she has the duty firmly to proclaim the truth about man and his destiny."

Of course, the Reasonable elites of European society and beyond will gag at the thought. Why would that old Fool possibly imagine they, the enlightened people, would ever take such a Foolish idea seriously? Honestly!

I would not be surprised if some "humanist" group or some-such group starts hurling brickbats soon. All that will do is convince the everyman in all societies that the Pope has a point. It's amazing how catching Foolishness can be!

God bless you, your Holiness, for daring to proclaim Christ's Foolishness before a Reasonable world. And may God continue to strengthen you as you march on!