Practical atheism does not deny God or reject God outright the cardinal said, but it removes God from the centre of life.

Speaking at The Catholic University of America in Washington DC, the Cardinal warned that this form of atheism is gaining traction among clergy and laypeople alike.

This mindset, he noted, has permeated Europe where Catholicism once thrived but is now waning. More worryingly, he said it has begun to take root within the Church itself.

He reflected on the legacy of Pope St John Paul II, who played a crucial role in the downfall of Soviet Communism which sought to impose atheism. However, Cardinal Sarah emphasised that while ideological atheism has diminished, the threat now comes from within, manifesting as a ‘practical atheism' that renders God irrelevant in daily life.

"How often do we hear from theologians, priests, religious and even some bishops — or bishops conferences — that we need to adjust our moral theology for considerations that are only human" he said.

Yet "a Church based on human resolutions" the cardinal warned "becomes only a human church".

Confusion and dilution of core beliefs

"To be Catholic is more than a culture identification, it is a profession of faith. It has a particular content of faith. To move outside that content, both in belief and practice, is to move outside of faith" the cardinal said.

He warned against considering all voices within the Church equally legitimate, which he believes could lead to confusion and a dilution of core beliefs. "As Cardinal Ratzinger said: ‘A faith we can decide for ourselves is no faith at all'."

None of the proponents of this paradigm shift within the Church "reject God outright, but they treat Revelation as secondary, or at least on equal footing with experience and modern science" the cardinal said.

"This is how practical atheism works. It does not deny God but functions as if God is not central."

Addressing the Church's future, Cardinal Sarah called on US bishops to defend the faith and uphold the centrality of Jesus Christ.

He praised the vitality of the American Church, contrasting it with Europe.

"The United States is not like Europe. The faith is still young and maturing. This young vitality is a gift to the Church" he said.

"Your seminaries have largely been reformed, lay apostolates are breathing new life into the faith and there are pockets of life in parishes" he observed.

Sources

National Catholic Register

"We have seen many of our brothers and sisters leave the church disillusioned, thinking that Christ is not the answer to their quest for happiness and meaning," he said on April 26 at The Catholic University of America in Washington.

"We experience on a daily basis the hardships of living out the faith in the face of a society which is increasingly secularized and polarized. The temptation to remain stuck in the past is real; the path forward is often difficult to discern and discouragement can set in," Pierre said.

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Speaking at The Catholic University of America, Favale said that the Catholic Church was "carrying the torch on the dignity of the body" in a way that nobody else was.

She suggested that the church's teaching on the sacramentality of the human body could provide a useful foundation for discussion on gender.

Favale, author of "The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory," stressed the importance of recognising that gender is "affecting real people" and that it requires a deeper understanding than just biology.

Professor Favale urged her listeners to balance compassion for those grappling with gender issues with fidelity to church teaching.

She compared the process to inviting someone into one's home while guarding the identity of the household.

"You offer hospitality, you earnestly listen to what is on their mind," she said, "but this doesn't mean you compromise the identity of your home or ask them to sign a statement they believe everything you believe."

Favale approaches questions about gender "from a deeply Catholic perspective but one that does not lose sight of the humanity and very real suffering of people who experience gender discordance," she said.

Gender refers to the whole person

"In a Catholic understanding, we can distinguish between sex and gender, but not separate them. Sex is to female as gender is to woman," Favale said.

"Gender is a category that refers to the whole person, the unity of body and soul that includes sex. It's not strictly reducible just to biology."

Favale stressed the need for "accompaniment" for those struggling with gender issues, suggesting that this required "seeking to understand the person and really listen to their experience and what they're going through."

The professor was critical of the narrative surrounding gender transitioning surgery, suggesting that it implied "my body doesn't reveal who I am and that causes me stress."

She argued that "the body reveals the person," but that the error came from "not believing the body is already revealing the person and that the body is a gift."

Favale's remarks were delivered as part of a speaker series launched by Peter Kilpatrick, Catholic University's president. The professor gave opening remarks to an audience of 350 people before answering questions posed by Kilpatrick and audience members both present in the hall and participating via livestream.

Sources

The Dialog

Detroit Catholic

The study "Well-being, Trust and Policy in a Time of Crisis" by The Catholic Project, was written by Brandon Vaidyanathan, Christopher Jacobi and Chelsea Rae Kelly, of The Catholic University of America.

The study paints a portrait of a majority of priests who feel abandoned by the men they are supposed to trust at the helm of their dioceses.

The report polled 10,000 clergy. It received 3,516 responses from 191 dioceses. The researchers also conducted 100 intensive follow-up interviews.

The survey showed high levels of support for strict anti-sex abuse policies.

However, just under half of the survey respondents indicated they trust their bishop.

The survey also indicated most priests are happy in their work but report being overburdened. Priests said that they loved their work, registering marks high above the general population. Nearly eight out of ten priests could be described as "flourishing".

Despite such high scores for contentment, 45 percent of priests showed at least one sign of burnout. Nearly one in ten showed severe signs. Younger priests were much more likely to indicate they felt burned out than older clergy.

A leading negative factor in assessing priests' well-being was a lack of trust in their bishops. This led to an 11.5 per cent reduction in priestly well-being among those who expressed a lack of trust in their own bishop.

The survey also found widespread distrust of the bishops as a whole, with just under one quarter of priests expressing confidence in their leadership.

These attitudes were especially sharp when it came to fears that a priest might be falsely accused of sexual abuse and that the bishops would not help them fight the allegation.

Eighty-two percent of priests said they regularly fear being falsely accused. Were that to happen, they feel they would face a "de facto policy" of guilty until proven innocent.

"There's this sense ... that the bishops are against a priest who's been accused, rather than doing what the bishop must do but still supporting the priest," said one of the 100 priests of whom researchers asked in-depth questions.

"Most priests agree with the church's response to the abuse crisis, but also fear that their bishops wouldn't have their backs if they were falsely accused," says Vaidyanathan.

Priests in the study said they predominantly see the prelates as social climbers, careerists and administrators who barely know priests in their diocese by name.

"I don't really trust most of the bishops, to be honest with you. I'll show them all a great amount of respect. And if I was in their diocese, I would really serve them and try," a priest told researchers.

"But just looking across the United States and looking across a lot of bishops ... I would say I have an overall negative opinion of bishops in the United States.

"They're really not leaders or they're just kind of chameleons ... looking to climb up the ladder."

Sources

The Tablet

National Catholic Reporter

America Magazine