Rorate Caeli reports this extract from Cardinal Dias' speech to the Lambeth Conference:
The rest of the speech is equally hard hitting and linked to by Rorate Caeli, do read it all.
The spiritual combat, described in the Books of Genesis and Revelation, has continued unabated all down the ages. St Paul described it in very vivid terms: “We are not contending against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12). This combat rages fiercely even today, aided and abetted by well-known secret sects, Satanic groups and New Age movements, to mention but a few, and reveals many ugly heads of the hideous anti-God monster: among them are notoriously secularism, which seeks to build a Godless society; spiritual indifference, which is insensitive to transcendental values; and relativism, which is contrary to the permanent tenets of the Gospel. All of these seek to efface any reference to God or to things supernatural, and to supplant it with mundane values and behaviour patterns which purposely ignore the transcendental and the divine. Far from satisfying the deep yearnings of the human heart, they foster a culture of death, be it physical or moral, spiritual or psychological. Examples of this culture are abortions (or the slaughter of innocent unborn children), divorces (which kill sacred marriage bonds blessed by God), materialism and moral aberrations (which suffocate the joy of living and lead often to profound psychic depression), economic, social and political injustices (which crush human rights), violence, suicides, murders, and the like, all of which abound today and militate against the mind of Christ, who came that “all may have life, and have it in abundance” (Jn 10:10). Two vital institutions of the human society are particularly vulnerable to such a culture of death: the family and the youth. These must, therefore, receive the special attention, guidance and support of those whom the Holy Spirit has placed as shepherds of the flock entrusted to their pastoral care.
The rest of the speech is equally hard hitting and linked to by Rorate Caeli, do read it all.
4 comments:
What are the well-known secret sects he is referring to sound like an oxymoron unless they the ones I am thinking of.
The issue I am referring to is perhaps the that explored in "The Rosicrucian Enlightenment" by Frances Yates. There may also be a connection with the stripping down of our own liturgy supposedly in accordance with Vatican 2.
I will not say more and perhaps it is best not to but typing a few words into your google search box is surprisingly revealing even after all the conspiracy theory stuff has been discounted.
It was reported in the media some time ago that Cardinal Ivan Dias burned incense to a Hindu Deity & was pictured lighting a candle to Ganesh in India.
I don't know if he has abjured his action in this event.
Then, in 2006, he was chosen by Pope Benedict XVI to be Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples.
The incongruity of H.E.'s action as reported above & his Lambeth speech is perplexing to say the least.
Correction: He was placing a lighted incense stick before the pagan-Hindu idol Ganesh.
Although Cardinal Dias is absolutely right, I fear that his words will receive little serious attention. The desire for ecumenical unity has effectively been abandoned by the Anglicans, partly because they are unable to maintain a sense of restraint and unity within themselves as a body. Each individual national church is linked via the rest of the Anglican Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury by a 'gentleman's agreement'. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to restrain those parts that want to ignore the rest of the communion. Each year something seems to happen that pushes them further and further away from the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. It is very sad.
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