"Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI possesses a
keen ability to summarize the ideas and problems of our times both
cogently and succinctly. Consider the following assessment of our age
that he made during a 2015 interview:
"For the man of today…. things are, in a
certain sense, inverted, or rather, man no longer believes he needs
justification before God, but rather he is of the opinion that God is
obliged to justify himself because of all the horrible things in the
world and in the face of the misery of being human, all of which
ultimately depend on Him (Benedict XVI, Interview with Jacques Servais, L’Osservatore Romano, English edition, March 2016).
"This is quite a profound diagnosis of the hubris of our times. This hubris is apparent among both unbelievers and
believers. While Benedict sets the problem in the context of the
mystery of evil and suffering, my own experience is that the problem is
wider than that. Many people don't merely demand an accounting from God
for the existence of evil, they also demand justification from Him for
any teaching of His Scripture or the Church that does not accord with
their views. The premise is that the teachings of Scripture and the
Church must conform to modern notions or else stand convicted of being
out-of-touch, useless, irrelevant, or even intolerant, harsh, and
hurtful.
"All of this is completely backwards.
For any Catholic, it is the world and its views that should be on
trial. God should not need to justify His teachings or render an account
to us, rather it is the world that should be required to explain how its views do not contradict God."
In a recent commentary, Monsignor Charles Pope (pastor of Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian Parish,
Washington, DC) reflected on the disparity between Scripture's guidance to "square everything with the measure of God's Word and reject anything that is contrary to it while retaining what is good" vis-à-vis the worldly tendency to put the Word of God and the teachings of the Church on trial if they do not conform to worldly thinking.
To access Msgr. Pope's complete post, please visit:
Community in Mission: Who is Really on Trial in Our Life? (1 AUG 17)
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