Spanish cardinal: Society is sick because the family is being destroyed

Toledo, Spain, Nov 25, 2008 / 20:19 pm

During his homily on Sunday, Cardinal Antonio Canizares of Toledo said, “We are suffering a true illness in our society because of the weakening, if not the destruction, of the family, which together with the Church, are obstacles to be overcome in order to impose a new plan for mankind and for society that certainly has no future.”

 

“I know I’m going to get criticized. Who cares? Our society is sick, very sick and we cannot hide it.  We have the abominable crime of abortion, although--why not say it?—a small light has been lit recently in our sister country of Uruguay,” the cardinal said in his homily.

 

The cardinal said abortion symbolized the illness that society is experiencing, together with “other attacks on life, such as euthanasia, experimentation with embryos and their use for economic reasons.”

 

He also pointed to a fear of the Christian faith that is manifested in the removal of crucifixes from schools and other efforts to suppress religious expression.

 

“These are difficult times we are going though,” the cardinal said, “and nobody can be predict what is going to happen in the future.  The grave crisis in schools and businesses is part of a deeper crisis, of which the economic crisis is not the most important, and that is the crisis of the meaning of life, the human and moral crisis of universal values.”