Hi all.
Recently we have seen the violence of disaffected youth in London and elsewhere in England. No doubt we have all deplored their actions, and the various circumstances that have led to them. I read something interesting the other day, which I thought had something challenging to say:
In London and elsewhere in England there were riots, and there will be more upheaval there and in Europe, because those values which restrain people, which make them think about others, which instil in young people a sense of right and wrong, have been undermined. They are imbued with relativism and its fruits, and they rampage around, doing what they feel like doing, without reference to the common good. This has come about because parents and schools and the media have in a double effort of reckless irresponsibility, not exercised governance and discipline over their children. In London and elsewhere they are now reaping the results. Neighborhoods are terrorized, businesses harmed, and the fabric of society weakened, thus perpetuating the recourse to violence.
In the Church, there has been relatively little exercise of discipline of the Faith in schools and pulpits as far as teaching is concerned, and little oversight in some places for liturgical worship. The lack of clear Catholic teaching or the mixed messages that come from heterodoxy in one parish and fidelity in another, even between priests in the same parish, has produced the impression that even the clearest dogmas of the Faith are up to personal choice and interpretation. This has produced gangs which can roam nearly unchecked up and and down the streets of the Church, rampaging and intimidating and spiritually bullying the faithful, leaving them spiritually impoverished and confused. The theological hoods, yobs, are now almost entirely beyond hope. They do violence to the Church’s doctrine and worship, and thereby diminish the fabric of the Church wherever they are.
What do we think?
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