"Saviours are a dime a dozen"

Dominican Father Augustine DiNoia, undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith gave an address in December which was reported by the Catholic News Service. I have just picked it up from Fr Michael Brown's excellent blog Forest Murmurs.

In a strikingly relevant comment, Father observed:
Saviours are a dime a dozen when one fails to grasp what's really at stake. We need to be delivered not just from error, or suffering, or desire, or injustice, or poverty... God desires nothing less than to share his life with us... [Jesus is] not just any Saviour.
Fr DiNoia also wisely advised:
In our conversations with young people, we have to avoid the temptation to fudge - to adapt the Catholic faith so as to make it palatable to modern tastes and expectations
The good Dominican Father's wisdom is proved by experience. It is common nowadays for the question of the lapsation of young people comes up at various group discussions on how we should best rearrange the deckchairs on the sinking barque of Peter before closing the remaining Churches and deputing someone to put out the lights after the last person has left.

Sometimes, I have the actual grace necessary to suggest that we should look around - even in the Western world - and see where there is devotional life among the young, reception of the sacraments, a resurgence of vocations, and a sincere attempt to keep the commandments and live the Christian life. When we have found those groups, associations, summer schools and conferences, we should take a hard and objective look and ask ourselves "What are they doing right?"

The answer will be: devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, love for Our Lady and the saints, emphasis on frequent confession, reverent celebration of the Sacred Liturgy, and a firm adherence to the teaching of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

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