Birmingham, Ala., May 22, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Catholics in a secular society must bear witness to Jesus by their right relationship to wealth, by respecting life from conception to natural death, by maintaining the dignity of the family, and by urging parents to be their children’s first educators of the faith.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham issued a pastoral letter outlining these four important ways of witness. The letter was read Sunday in churches throughout the Archdiocese of Birmingham.
"These truths about human life, about the family, about education and about wealth are the foundation not only of our own happiness but also of the health of our society,” he wrote.
In the current secular society, “individuals are urged to fashion values of their own, deciding for themselves what is right and what is wrong, and pursuing their own desires even when doing so may hurt others,” the archbishop wrote. “As a result we live in a fragmented world, one in which divisions are deep and frightening for many.”