Dear Brothers, in the decades following the Second Vatican Council, some interpreted the opening to the world not as a demand of the missionary ardor of the Heart of Christ, but as a passage to secularization, ... . ... [C]ertain fundamental truths of the faith, such as sin, grace, theological life, and the last things, were not mentioned anymore.Many ecclesial communities senselessly fell into self-secularization; attempting to please those who would not come, they witnessed many whom they had leave them, deceived and disillusioned: those of our time, when they come to us, want to see that which they do not see anywhere else, that is, the joy and hope that come forth from the fact that we are together with the risen Lord.There is today a new generation already born within this secularized ecclesial environment who, instead of noticing an opening or consensus, sees in society a ditch of differences and contradictions to the Magisterium of the Church, above all in ethical matters, which widens itself more and more. In this desert of God, the new generation feels a great thirst for transcendency.
Benedict XVI
September 7, 2009
