WASHINGTON, D.C., May 24, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – “Non-religious ‘spiritualism’ is the new paganism,” Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann told the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast this morning.
Naumann, the incoming chair of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee, said our culture is “experiencing a crisis of faith that leads to denial of truth.”
He listed as major problems today school shootings, international tensions and conflicts, and the fact that “one third of American children are being raised in homes without their biological fathers.”
He noted Catholic Charities in Massachusetts, Illinois, Washington, D.C. are no longer allowed to facilitate adoptions (this is thanks to same-sex “marriage”) and that there are “doctors and organizations that profit from the killing” of more than one million babies every year.
Naumann also lamented efforts to force Catholic hospitals to commit abortions and the plight of illegal immigrant minors.
When “materialism reigns and brings utilitarianism,” society no longer acknowledges unalienable rights, he said. “The pursuit of pleasure becomes the highest goal…in the end, [pleasures] leave us more and more empty” and “suffering and death” become enemies.
It’s this mindset that causes people to view the severely disabled as more “vegetable” than people, he said, even though caring for them is “the noblest form of love.” This mindset also views babies in the womb as “too tiny to have rights but something very useful to destroy” in hopes of restoring youth “to those already born.”
Naumann said original sin was Adam and Eve essentially trying to become their own gods, and “this is the archetype of every sin.”
“God comes to rescue us, just as he saved Israel from the slavery of Egypt,” he said. “Sin masquerades as freedom but in reality enslaves us from disordered cravings.”
“Let us pray for a religious revival in our nation, another ‘great awakening,’” the archbishop suggested. “We have a responsibility to bring his love and mercy” to the world.
Naumann referenced being “missionary disciples,” a phrase often used by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and going to the “peripheries,” a signature word of Pope Francis.
“We are called to renew our nation, not primarily by enacting laws,” but by proclaiming the Gospel, he said. “It is our task, dear friends, to reclaim our culture one mind, one heart, and one soul at a time.”
Before his speech, Naumann defended on EWTN denying pro-abortion politicians Holy Communion as sometimes the only course of action if the politician refuses to cease the abortion advocacy.
He also mentioned he is praying for Ireland, which tomorrow will vote on whether to legalize abortion.
The priest who delivered the event’s benediction, Monsignor John Cregan of the Diocese of Arlington, led the 1,000 Catholics present in a Memorare for Ireland.