... A profound crisis of Faith...

Pope Benedict recently addressed the CDF on the need for a reinvigorated evangelization. The entire address can be found here. Some of the Holy Father's words will no doubt shock many Catholics who believe the Church is strong and perhaps even undergoing a revival. Nothing could be further from the truth. In Faith, there is a horrendous falling away of belief in the Real Presence; in the understanding that the Catholic Church is the one, true Church founded by Christ we have the belief that one religion is as good as another; in ethics, we have massive dissent on sexual morality...

A few sobering words from Pope Benedict on a number of key themes:

Faith

"As we know, in vast areas of the earth faith risks being extinguished, like a flame that is no longer fed. We are facing a profound crisis of faith, a loss of the religious sense that constitutes the greatest challenge to the Church today."

Religious Indifferentism

"However, we must also recognize that the risk of a false irenism and of indifferentism — totally foreign to the thinking of the Second Vatican Council — demands our vigilance. This indifferentism is caused by the increasingly widespread opinion that truth is not accessible to man; hence it is necessary to limit oneself to finding rules for a praxis that can better the world. And like this, faith becomes substituted by a moralism without deep foundations".

Ethics

"Finally, I would like to mention one last matter: the moral problem, which is a new challenge to the ecumenical process. In the dialogue we cannot ignore the great moral questions regarding human life, the family, sexuality, bioethics, freedom, justice and peace".