Catholic Bishop Alert: Bishops Blame Society for all the Nation’s Problems

How much blame really goes to the Bishops? How responsible are they? Can parents legitimately blame a child for his/her bad behaviour? How valid could such an argument be?

Can you tell me what year the U.S. Catholic Bishops put out the statement referred to below?

Following their annual meeting, the U.S. Catholic bishops issue a statement condemning secularism in American society and blaming it for all the problems they see around them.

The bishops' statement says:

    "The real danger to our country comes not from any division likely to result from religious education or profession. It comes rather from the threatening disintegration of our social life due to the weakening of religion as a constructive force.

    With the decline of religious belief, the increase of divorce and family disintegration has become a national scandal. With the break-up of the family juvenile delinquency has shown an alarming increase. Consequent upon the weakening of religion there has been a lowering of moral standards which has resulted in public corruption — and this in turn threatens all respect for law and public authority.

    The immanent threat to our country comes not from divisiveness but from irreligious social decay. The truly religious man is certain to be one who treasures all those ideals which religion helped to build into this nation. To the man who is lacking in religious belief nothing in the end is likely to be sacred, nothing worth preserving. In that direction lies the real danger to our country."

What year did the U.S. Catholic Bishops say this? Answer is here.

How much has really changed? This is a subject that needs to be explored in much greater detail.

What role do we, the laity, play? Do we have much say?

Quote from the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen:

“Who is going to save our Church? Not our Bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops like bishops and your religious act like religious”

To what extent does such a statement apply? If it’s true, we have utterly failed in our mission.