Campus Notes

In his remarks to the US Catholic bishops on Saturday, November 26, Pope Benedict XVI summoned “the Church in America to recognize, in the light of a dramatically changing social and religious landscape, the urgency and demands of a new evangelization,” according to Vatican Radio.

In particular, the Pope singled out the responsibility that Catholic colleges have to their students saying:

Young people have a right to hear clearly the Church’s teaching and, most importantly, to be inspired by the coherence and beauty of the Christian message, so that they in turn can instill in their peers a deep love of Christ and his Church.

Pope Benedict XVI said that the bishops had shared their concerns with him “about the grave challenges to a consistent Christian witness presented by an increasingly secularized society.”

The Pope decried the “troubling breakdown in the intellectual, cultural and moral foundations of social life, and a growing sense of dislocation and insecurity, especially among the young, in the face of wide-ranging societal changes.”

He referenced “attempts to still the Church’s voice in the public square,” but insisted that many continue to look to the Church for wisdom and guidance.

He called on the bishops to use this moment “as a summons to exercise the prophetic dimension of your episcopal ministry by speaking out, humbly yet insistently, in defense of moral truth, and offering a word of hope, capable of opening hearts and minds to the truth that sets us free.”

The Pope said he is encouraged by some of the work being done, especially the changes he’s seen in Catholic colleges.

In the end, however, the renewal of the Church’s witness to the Gospel in your country is essentially linked to the recovery of a shared vision and sense of mission by the entire Catholic community. I know that this is a concern close to your own heart, as reflected in your efforts to encourage communication, discussion and consistent witness at every level of the life of your local Churches. I think in particular of the importance of Catholic universities and the signs of a renewed sense of their ecclesial mission, as attested by the discussions marking the tenth anniversary of the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, and such initiatives as the symposium recently held at Catholic University of America on the intellectual tasks of the new evangelization. Young people have a right to hear clearly the Church’s teaching and, most importantly, to be inspired by the coherence and beauty of the Christian message, so that they in turn can instill in their peers a deep love of Christ and his Church.

The Cardinal Newman Society is committed to supporting the new evangelization and works to renew and strengthen Catholic identity in Catholic higher education.