Pope tells U.S. Catholics to speak bravely, 'with united voice'

Published: 2004-05-28

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholics in the United States must "speak courageously and with a united voice" about the moral and spiritual issues facing the country, Pope John Paul II said. The church, he said, "is called to respond to the profound religious needs and aspirations of a society increasingly in danger of forgetting its spiritual roots and yielding to a purely materialistic and soulless vision of the world." Pope John Paul spoke May 28 in a meeting with bishops from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin who were making their "ad limina" visits to Rome to report on the status of their dioceses. Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George, speaking on behalf of the visiting bishops, told the pope the bishops felt it was important "to affirm our profound commitment to the mission Christ gave the church and to do so at a time when the church in the United States is in great danger." The cardinal said, "The scandal of the sexual abuse of minors by some priests and the failure of adequate oversight by some bishops has brought with it a more overt expression of the anti-Catholicism which has always marked American culture."

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