Moral Relativism and Missal changes

[Barbkw]

Will changes in the Missal help evangelize Catholics away from moral relativism?

The first change is in the wording from; Jesus’ blood being shed “for you and for all” to “for you and for many”.

The second change is in the wording from ; “and peace to His (God’s) people on Earth” to “and on Earth peace to people of good will.”

Also, the Confiteor prayer; again adds "that I have greatly sinned, … “through my fault, through my fault,through my most grievous fault….”

From the USCCB website, the “for many” instead of “for all” is explained.

usccbmedia.blogspot.com/2011/09/roman-missal-two-months-and-counting.html

1. “For many.”

One of the points that has generated more discussion is the translation of qui pro vobis et pro multis effundétur in remissiónem peccatórum, presently translated “which will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.”

In the new edition of the Roman Missal, “for all” will be changed to “for many.”

There are several reasons for this change.

First, “for many” is a more accurate translation of the Latin phrase pro multis than the present translation.

This is also the wording used in the Biblical narrative account of the Last Supper found in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark.

Even though it is a dogmatic teaching of the Church that Christ died on the Cross for all men and women, the expression “for many” is reflective also of the fact that this salvation is not brought automatically, without one’s own willing participation, but rather is a gift to be accepted.

Also, in the context of the Last Supper, Jesus was speaking to the Twelve, extending the reach of his sacrifice beyond the boundary of his closest disciples.

In the context of the celebration of the Eucharist, the phrase “for you and for many” connects the particular gathered assembly with the larger sense of the Church in every time and place, as if to say “not only you gathered here, but many more as well.”

Wikipedia has a compilation of Catholic thought on moral relativism:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativism

The Roman Catholic Church, especially under John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, has identified relativism as one of the most significant problems for faith and morals today.[40]

According to the Church and to some philosophers, relativism, as a denial of absolute truth, leads to moral license and a denial of the possibility of sin and of God.

Whether moral or epistemological, relativism constitutes a denial of the capacity of the human mind and reason to arrive at truth.

Truth, according to Catholic theologians and philosophers (following Aristotle and Plato) consists of adequatio rei et intellectus, the correspondence of the mind and reality.

Another way of putting it states that the mind has the same form as reality.

This means when the form of the computer in front of someone (the type, color, shape, capacity, etc.) is also the form that is in their mind, then what they know is true because their mind corresponds to objective reality.

The denial of an absolute reference, of an axis mundi, denies God, who equates to Absolute Truth, according to these Christian philosophers.

They link relativism to secularism, an obstruction of religion in human life.

 

[Barbkw]

Wiki also includes Pope Benedict’s homilies concerning moral relativism.

Benedict XVIIn April 2005, in his homily[42] during Mass prior to the conclave which would elect him as Pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger talked about the world “moving towards a dictatorship of relativism”:

How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking.

The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth.

Every day new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error (cf Ephesians 4, 14).

Having a clear Faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism.

Whereas, relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and “swept along by every wind of teaching”, looks like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards.

We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.

However, we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man.

He is the measure of true humanism.

Being an “Adult” means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today’s fashions or the latest novelties. A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature. It is this friendship which opens us up to all that is good and gives us the knowledge to judge true from false, and deceit from truth.

On June 6, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI told educators:

"Today, a particularly insidious obstacle to the task of education is the massive presence in our society and culture of that relativism which, recognizing nothing as definitive, leaves as the ultimate criterion only the self with its desires.

And under the semblance of freedom it becomes a prison for each one, for it separates people from one another, locking each person into his or her own ‘ego’".[43]

 

[Edmundus1581]

Good observations, Barbkw. I hadn’t notice this previously, but agree entirely with you. The changes will have a good effect.