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Question:

Why is there a need to address the nature of our Catholic Schools and the preparation of teachers and theologians in our Catholic Institutions?

Answer: (My Italics)

"Today.... it is necessary to reflect on the whole of the Church's moral teaching, with the precise goal of recalling fundamental truths of Catholic doctrine which, in the present circumstances, risk being distorted or denied. In fact, a new situation has come about within the Christian community itself which has experienced the spread of numerous doubts and objections of a human and psychological, social and cultural, religious and even prepoerly theological nature, with regard to the Church's moral teachings. It is no longer a matter of limited and occasional dissent, but of an overall and systematic calling into question of traditional moral doctrine, on the basis of certain anthropological and ethical presuppositions. At the root of these presuppositions is the more or less obvious influence of currents of thought which end by detaching human freedom from its essential and constitutive relationship to truth. Thus the traditional doctrine regarding the natural law, and the universality and..permanent validity of its precepts, is rejected; certain of the Church's moral teachings are found simply unnacceptable, and the Magisterium itself is considered capable of intervening in matters of morality only in order to 'exhort consciences' and to 'propose values', in the light of which each individual will independently make his or her decisions and life choices.

In particular, note should be taken of the lack of harmony between the traditional response of the Church and certain theological positions, encountered even in seminaries and in Faculties of Theology, with regard to questions of the greatest importance for the Church and for the life of faith of Christians, as well as... society itself....Also an opinion is frequently heard which questions the unbreakable bond between faith and morality [an an opinion exists within ] the sphere of morality [ whereby] a pluralism of opinions and of kinds of behaviour could be tolerated, ...left to ...indivudual subjective conscience or to .... cultural contexts.

[We are facing] what is certainly a genuine crisis.."

The Splendour of Truth, Veritatis Splendor, Pope John Paul the Second

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