Galloping urbanization and cultural rootlessness

8. Under various pressures, such as poverty and the under-development of rural areas deprived of indispensable goods and services as well as, in some countries, armed conflicts which force millions of people to leave behind their home and culture, the growing number of people on the move is emptying the countryside of people and causing the great cities to expand excessively. In addition to these economic and social pressures, cities have the fascination of the well-being and entertainment they offer, as vividly portrayed by the means of social communication. Through lack of planning, the outskirts or suburbs of every megalopolis are like ghettos. These are often huge agglomerations of people who are socially rootless, politically powerless, economically marginalized and culturally isolated.

Cultural rootlessness, which has so many causes, shows how important cultural roots are. It contributes to a loss of people's social and cultural identity and dignity. People whose lives are thus unravelled become easy prey for dehumanizing business practices. In this century, as never before, people have shown how capable and talented they are. But, at the same time, never throughout history had there been so many denials and violations of human dignity, bitter fruits of denying or forgetting God. Cultural fragmentation confines values to the private sphere: this alters morality and weakens spirituality to such an extent that one reaches the terrifying concept of the «culture of death», a real semantic nonsense for a counter-culture which reveals the sinister contradiction between the affirmation of a will to live and an obstinate rejection of God, the source of all life (cf. Evangelium Vitae, 11-12 and 19-28).

«The evangelization of urban culture is a formidable challenge for the Church. Just as she was able to evangelize rural culture for centuries, the Church is called in the same way today to undertake a methodical and far-reaching urban evangelization through catechesis, the liturgy and the very way in which her pastoral structures are organized» (Ecclesia in America, 21).