II

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

A new age in human history (Gaudium et Spes, 54)

7. The conditions in which modern men and women live in these final decades of the second millennium have been so profoundly altered that the second Vatican Council spoke boldly of «a new age in human history» (Gaudium et Spes, 54). For the Church, it is like a new kairos, when the time is ripe for a new evangelization in which the new features of culture are to be seen as both opportunities and challenges for a pastoral approach to culture.

The Church in our time is well aware of all this, as a result of the efforts of the Popes, who have developed and articulated the Church's social teaching, from Rerum Novarum in 1891 to Centesimus Annus in 1991. It has inspired Federations of Bishops' Conferences and Synods of Bishops to develop practical responses appropriate to their countries' particular situations. While these situations vary greatly, there are some common factors in responses.

In the cultural situation which prevails in different parts of the world today, priority is given to subjective criteria and measures of truth (cf. Fides et Ratio, 47). Positivist presuppositions on the progress of science and technology are now seen as questionable. After the spectacular defeat of collectivist atheistic Marxism-Leninism, the rival ideology - liberalism - is struggling in its efforts to bring about happiness for the human race and to ensure responsible dignity for each person. An anthropocentric pragmatic atheism, blatant religious indifference, all-embracing hedonistic materialism are marginalizing the faith, making it appear evanescent, lacking in cultural substance and relevance, in the context of «today's prevalently scientific and technical culture» (Veritatis Splendor, 112). «In a widely dechristianized culture, the criteria employed by believers themselves in making judgements and decisions often appear extraneous or even contrary to those of the Gospel» (Ibid, 88). In celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the conciliar Constitution on the liturgy, Pope John Paul II recalled: «Cultural adaptation also requires conversion of heart and even, where necessary, a breaking with ancestral customs incompatible with the Catholic faith. This demands a serious formation in theology, history and culture, as well as sound judgement in discerning what is necessary or useful and what is not useful or even dangerous to faith» (Vicesimus quintus annus, 16).