The secularist project, in seeking to organize society without reference to God, without reference to the transcendent destiny of man, only ends up in organizing society against man and alienates man from himself and from his fellows because it denies something of the full truth about man. Such was the history of the ideological materialism of Marxist societies. And such is the present reality of the practical materialism of consumer societies where the break-up of the family, drug abuse, promiscuity, abortion are symptomatic of modern man’s alienation from himself, of modern man’s hopelessness even in the midst of affluence.
Today, men and women of faith in public life must engage their contemporaries once again in a renewed dialog. The stakes are high. For as the Vatican Council taught: “man cannot find himself except through a sincere gift of self”. Man finds himself when he transcends himself in a gift of himself to others – and to the Other.
We have something to say. We have a Word to share – that word is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ – as our Holy Father is so fond of repeating – reveal to man not only the truth about God but also the truth about Man, for Christ is true God and true Man. Our dialog is not about seeking to impose a creedal definition on any citizen; but, we do offer a proposal towards a fuller understanding of the truth about the human person and of his God-given dignity and freedom. This understanding is born of faith but it is not unknowable to human reasoning. We can offer our contemporaries a view of man which is certainly in conformity with our founding fathers’ belief in nature and nature’s God. We can offer a view of man that allows him a means to find himself.
– from his “Red Mass” homily, 2004
