Rejecting "nostalgia for a sacralized world, a bygone society" As Well As "Secularism" As A Requirement Outside Of Governmental Administration

A BUSY DAY for me so I'll leave you with this passage from a piece by Michael Sean Winters which contains an excellent passage from Pope Francis on the difference between secularization and secularism which is certainly a useful refinement of ideas I've been giving in a cruder form.

The Spirit of God is at work not only in the lives of the faithful, but beyond the walls of the church as well. This is one of the Holy Father's most provocative and important themes, one he touched on in his address to the bishops, clergy and religious of Quebec. There, building on quotes from Pope Paul VI, he said:

    "Saint Paul VI distinguished secularization from secularism, a concept of life that totally separates a link with the Creator, so that God becomes "superfluous and an encumbrance", and generates subtle and diverse "new forms of atheism": "consumer society, the pursuit of pleasure set up as the supreme value, a desire for power and domination, and discrimination of every kind" (ibid). As Church, and above all as shepherds of God's People, as consecrated men and women, seminarians and pastoral workers, it is up to us to make these distinctions, to make this discernment. If we yield to the negative view and judge matters superficially, we risk sending the wrong message, as though the criticism of secularization masks on our part the nostalgia for a sacralized world, a bygone society in which the Church and her ministers had greater power and social relevance."

Instead of wringing our hands about the secularization of the ambient culture, a process that has been ongoing for centuries, Pope Francis invites us to accompany those outside the church, mindful that the Spirit is at work in their lives too, that our Catholic doctrine of the Incarnation demands we stipulate that God is at work in their lives.

I've made a cruder distinction between secularism as an entirely necessary formal practice within governments in an egalitarian democratic pluralistic country and the kind of cultural atheism that that secularism has been opportunistically distorted into and demanded by those who hate religion and, most of all, Christianity.  I think the distinction that Pope Francis and Paul VI made is compatible with the one I made, though it contains some important nuances missing from my idea of it.   I will note who Francis lays that responsibility on, the clergy and religious most of all.  I think a political blogger should try to, as well.