Duc in Altum

And in the wake of this form of rationality, Europe has developed a culture that, in a manner unknown before now to humanity, excludes God from the public conscience, either by denying Him altogether, or by judging that His existence is not demonstrable, uncertain and, therefore, belonging to the realm of subjective choices, something, in any case, irrelevant to public life. This purely functional rationality, so to speak, has implied a disorder of the moral conscience altogether new for cultures existing up to now, as it deems rational only that which can be proved with experiments. As morality belongs to an altogether different sphere, it disappears as a category unto itself…. In a world based on calculation, it is the calculation of consequences that determines what must or must not be considered moral. Nothing is good or bad in itself, everything depends on the consequences that an action allows one to foresee. … The attempt, carried to the extreme, to manage human affairs disdaining God completely leads us increasingly to the edge of the abyss, to man’s ever greater isolation from reality...
Above all, that of which we are in need at this moment in history are men who, through an enlightened and lived faith, render God credible in this world. The negative testimony of Christians who speak about God and live against Him, has darkened God’s image and opened the door to disbelief. We need people who have their gaze directed to God, to understand true humanity. We need men whose intellects are enlightened by the light of God, and whose hearts God opens, so that their intellects can speak to the intellects of others, and so that their hearts are able to open up to the hearts of others. Only through men who have been touched by God, can God come near to men. We need men like [St.] Benedict of Norcia…. The recommendations to his monks presented at the end of his "Rule" are guidelines that show us also the way that leads on high, beyond the crisis and the ruins..."May they love one another with fraternal affection… Fear God in love... Put absolutely nothing before Christ who will be able to lead all to eternal life."

--Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI

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