LIMA, Peru, May 31, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a recent interview with Agenzia Fides, Cardinal Archbishop Juan Luis Cipriani came out strongly on a number of pro-life, pro-family issues and emphasized that, for the “modern apostle” who neglects his duty on these issues, “the sin of omission is as serious as the sinful deed.”
“The modern apostle must not be afraid to stand up for what is true and good, even if it means losing a job, coming under attack, and at times offering one’s life,” said the Cardinal.
Cardinal Cipriani was responding specifically to many Latin American’s governments’ attempts to pass laws which are antagonistic to life and the family. Brazil and Buenos Aires are among the Latin American countries that have extended marriage-like rights to same-sex couples.
“Rather than freedom to choose good from evil,” the Cardinal lamented, “freedom is seen as freedom to do what is evil…We see this new current in which everything is relative and nothing is definitive because the ultimate measure is always I, myself, and my personal whims. We are entering what the future Pope Bendict XVI called the dictatorship of relativism.”
The effects and the source of this ‘dictatorship of relativism’ are clear to see, said the Cardinal: “the weight of public opinion, so often manipulated by the media, allows the presentation of situations of unquestionable immorality to be considered instead normal, undermining sensitivity to moral values and measuring ethics with statistics…The cause of all this moral relativism in our day is the finality to please people whose vote is necessary to be popular.”
One of the tangible consequences of this new relativism is that “we are presented with a new sort of feminism which fails to recognizes maternity as God’s most valuable gift to women and uphold homosexuality as a sexual option rather than the disordered inclination which it is.”
The Cardinal further underlined the necessity of fighting spiritually against what he called a “sort of ‘international club’ which aims to promote social aberrations, hedonist sex as a life style and many other attitudes which are bad for the spiritual health of Christians and which are clear for all to see. There is a massive process of de-Christianisation which harms women most of all.”
The Cardinal assured his interviewer, however, that “the Church following Christ seeks the truth which does not always coincide with the opinion of the majority.” He called the Church the “watchman of the Peruvian soul”