Eucharistic consistency

Eucharistic consistency

"83. Here it is important to consider what the Synod Fathers described as eucharistic consistency, a quality which our lives are objectively called to embody. Worship pleasing to God can never be a purely private matter, without consequences for our relationships with others: it demands a public witness to our faith. Evidently, this is true for all the baptized, yet it is especially incumbent upon those who, by virtue of their social or political position, must make decisions regarding fundamental values, such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms (230). These values are not negotiable. Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature (231). There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist (cf. 1 Cor 11:27-29).  Bishops are under the obligation to repeat these precepts without ceasing; for this is part of their duty toward the flock entrusted to them. (232)."

Thus Benedict's Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis on several of the questions that have been most worried on this our blog about the meaning of the Catholic religion for Catholics in public life. I couldn't be more in agreement with the contents of par. 83, of course, but one has to wonder . . .  Will those who refuse to accede to the truth about the natural ends of human life, marriage, and family be moved by a magisterial pointing out of those ends' connection to a supernatural mystery of Christian faith?  Perhaps we can begin by hoping that -- even now and late in the day, when most American Catholics are persuaded, or at least concvinced, that they are called upon to be principled (!) relativists in public life -- the American bishops will begin to "repeat these precepts without ceasing?"  If the faithful don't hear it from their pastors, they won't hear it.  And if they don't hear it, how can they be "faithful?"