The priest behind the recent ad limina visits of America’s bishops to Rome says that Pope Benedict has called on the U.S. Catholic Church to help rescue and revive Christian culture.
“The Holy Father spoke of the challenges in marriage, in family life, in growing secularization, in education, but I think there was a common theme amidst all the challenges: that where God does not exist, where he is taken out of culture, civilization itself begins to disintegrate,” Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo told EWTN News in Rome.
Over the past six months, Msgr. Figueiredo has led the organization of 15 visiting delegations from the U.S. consisting of 258 bishops.
“It was a very, very intense time of serving these bishops, really allowing them to feel that Rome was their home away from home, and I must say that they went back really very positive for a number of reasons,” he said.
Ad limina visits usually occur every five to seven years and give the episcopate a chance to speak with the Pope and Vatican officials about the health and future of the Church in their diocese. “The most important part of the ad limina visit is not so much the administrative tasks, even though these are important, but really to come here and to pray,” he said.
It was, therefore, one of Msgr. Figueiredo’s key tasks to make sure that each delegation was able to say Mass at Rome’s four papal basilicas. That included making pilgrimages to the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul.
He was also the point man with the Vatican when arranging papal audiences for each of the delegations. These meetings, he said, allowed the bishops “to be confirmed in the mission that is entrusted to them, which is really an apostolic ministry given them by the Holy Father himself.”
Although born and bred in England, Msgr. Figueiredo, or “Father Anthony” as he usually refers to himself, is a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J. For the past six years, though, he has been based in Rome.
While he believes European culture is becoming increasingly secularized, “there still exists a window of opportunity in the United States” to save Christian culture. “If God is taken out of the equation, this is what the Holy Father was saying, then the human person has no human dignity,” he said, “and we can do with the human person whatever we feel should be done to him or to her, regardless of him or her being made in the image and likeness of God.”
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The public is being propagandized on a daily basis. News media tell us daily by inclusion and omission what is and isn’t important, how to see issues, and slander the Church on a daily basis. Pop culture tells us to stop thinking, decide things based on emotion and look to the entertainment industry for cues. Public education teaches kids by omission (calling it neutrality) that God is either nonexistent or unimportant. And, increasingly, individual Christians are being told by government that our views and values are alone impermissible under the new rubric where the only moral absolute is that we mustn’t offend members of politically privileged groups. Elections mean that we choose whether the people who preside over our increasing marginalization have a (D) or a (R) after their names. This is the scale of the challenge that the Church faces.
I think that no human being understands our times better than Pope Benedict, and if he thinks it’s possible to turn things around then that gives me hope. But we’ve got to find ways to break out of the cultural ghetto that the dominant culture wants us in and confront lies with the Truth in ways that the corporate-political complex can’t silence. We need to get the red pill to those who are ignorant and apathetic. Catholics need to get off the fence and declare themselves one way or the other. Otherwise it’s time to build the round towers and await the arrival of the barbarians.
Dear brothers and sisters: There is not a single thing that happens without God’s knowledge and approval. In that case I will one single question: seeing all that happens in the world, what are you planning to do in order to be used as an instrument of God? Fear not!
the only thing that is going to revive christian culture not only in america,but throughout the world, is a massive global event that GOD will allow to bring humanity down on its knees
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