Archbishop Chaput on the Common Good (from Zenit.org)

[urban-hermit]

You’ll remember that Nietzsche first claimed that God was dead. Then he went insane. Then he argued that he was God himself. Now he has his own candy bar. …

I don’t know if Nietzsche himself would endorse these bars. Given his mental state at the end of his life, I’m not sure he’d care. But he did have a ruthless sense of humor. … He’s bold. He’s radical. And the fact that he also went mad adds just the right touch of drama. In other words, he makes a great cultural icon for Americans to eat as a candy bar, because most Americans will never read a word of what he actually said.

The trouble is, once upon a time, some people in Germany did read him. And they did take him seriously. And they acted on what he said. Ideas have consequences. When Nietzsche asks us on the back of a Will to Power candy bar, “Is man merely a mistake of God’s, or God merely a mistake of man?” we Americans can swallow our chocolate along with our Starbuck’s and grin at the irony from the comfort of 2007. Sixty years ago, no one would have gotten the joke. There was nothing funny about the Holocaust. Ideas have consequences.

… I’m tired of the Church and her people being told to be quiet on public issues that urgently concern us. And second, I’m tired of Catholics themselves being silent because of some misguided sense of good manners. Self-censorship is an even bigger sin than allowing ourselves to be bullied by outsiders.

Only one question really matters. Does God exist or not? If he does, that has implications for every aspect of our personal and public behavior: all of our actions, all of our choices, all of our decisions. If God exists, denying him in our public life – whether we do it explicitly like Nietzsche or implicitly by our silence – cannot serve the common good because it amounts to worshiping the unreal in the place of the real. …

Must read the rest and see his quotes of Georges Bernanos…
zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=106724

 

[Dale_M]

I have a high opinion of Archbishop Chaput, and every time I read more of his words I give thanks that he is present and speaking out. His is the sort of leadership our Church needs.

Yes, religion is not just a private affair between individuals and God. Its not a personal preference like a taste for a certain flavor of ice cream.

God is real and he expects much from us. I know I fall short, and I am grateful for his mercy and forgiveness. But that doesn’t excuse me from trying harder to work with Him in transforming the world back to His design. This is something we should all do.

p.s.
I have never heard of Georges Bernanos… I guess I will have to look for him in the library.