RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENTISM AND ATHEISM

7 Many baptised persons have withdrawn so far from their religion that they profess a form of indifferentism or something close to atheism. "Still, many of our contemporaries recognise in no way this intimate and vital link with God, or else they explicitly reject it. Thus atheism must be accounted among the most serious problems of this age, and must be subjected to closer examination" (GS, 19).

The Second Vatican Council gave the matter careful consideration (cf. GS, 19-20) and dealt expressly with remedies to be applied: "The remedy which must be applied to atheism, however, is to be sought in a proper presentation of the Church’s teaching as well as in the integral life of the Church and her members. For it is a function of the Church to make God the Father and his incarnate Son present and in a sense visible by ceaselessly renewing and purifying herself under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This result is achieved chiefly by the witness of a living and mature faith, namely, one trained to see difficulties clearly and to master them" (GS, 21).

There are also cases in which the Christian faith is found contaminated with a new form of paganism, even though some religious sense and some faith in a Supreme Being persist. A religious disposition can exist far from the influence of the word of God and from the practice of the sacraments, but be nourished by the practice of superstition and magic; moral life can fall back into pre-Christian ethics. Sometimes elements of nature worship, animism, and divination are introduced into the Christian religion, and thus in some places a lapse into syncretism can occur. Moreover, religious sects are being propagated which mingle together the Christian mysteries and elements of fables from antiquity.

In these cases, there is the greatest possible need for the ministry of the word, especially evangelisation and catechesis, to be renewed in accord with the Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church, nn. 13, 14, 21, 22.