Madrid, Spain, Nov 22, 2004 / 22:00 pm
During his opening remarks for the Fall Assembly of the Bishops Conference of Spain, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco, Archbishop of Madrid and President of the Bishops Conference, said the Church would not cease to make known the social consequences of the Gospel, despite pressure from the dominant secularism in country.
During his extensive speech on the principal moral challenges facing Spanish society, Cardinal Rouco emphasized that, “unceasingly announcing the eternal love of God for each person, the Church offers to humanity the greatest of service.”
“Some will say,” he went on, “that this is an absolutely useless and stale task. There will even be some Catholics who consider references to God and to eternal life as secondary for existence in this world.”
Nevertheless, explained the Cardinal, “not only the experience of believers, but also mere historical experience, proves to us today that the old agnostic and atheistic ideologies are absolutely incapable of fulfilling what they promise; moreover, the history of the 20th century has given us evidence their true consequences. They promised freedom, and they brought oppression; they promised life and they brought death; they promised peace and they brought the bloodiest wars in history.”