That we are facing an attack of great proportions against essential aspects of our Christian anthropological conceptions is an evident truth. The Christian faith in America and in the Western world is under severe attack, with serious consequences. One of the effects that this moment of confusion can provoke is the hopelessness in the vitality of the Christian faith to recover, maintain and evangelize modern culture.
This reality can lead to complex processes. The first is to lower one's guard and let things flow without opposition, as if accepting failure and, in the long run, leading to a personal turning away from the faith. The second: the tendency to create small groups that are secure and attached to ways of acting that may once have been effective, but are not now. What should be done? We can resort to a concept that Benedict taught and that is still relevant today: the non-negotiable principles, on which Pope Francis also insists. There can be no compromise in the defense of life from conception to natural death. It is true that the vast majority of countries have done so, but this does not detract from the need to fight seriously for a change in these dramatic decisions. It is also necessary not to give up in the defense of the family formed by a man and a woman united by the marriage bond. It is true that almost all Western nations have gone down the path of approving laws and policies that allow legal and marital unions between people of the same sex. But this reality does not detract from the truth of marriage, regardless of religious conceptions. The family is by its essence the place where faith, the truth about man and society, and where virtues are learned.
A third element is to rescue the right of parents to educate their children in the ethical and religious spheres.
Bishop of San Bernardo (Chile)
