Pope to Bishops

Test of Pope's message to Catholic Bishops. In it, he acknowledged many positives trends in U.S. Catholic ministry and life, but made a challenge:

"Is it consistent to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday, and then during the week to promote business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs?”

The Pope spoke of the need to challenge the secular trends, to defend the family, and to not be afraid to speak out in public. For example:

"It is your task to proclaim boldly the arguments from faith and reason in favor of the institution of marriage, understood as a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman, open to the transmission of life."

The Pope's message is the right one. There are challenges to the Christian and Catholic community, and while the community addresses many well (eg charity), it needs to address others (challenge of secularism and materialism), with the leadership of the Bishops. 'Catholics should be Catholics' is how one commentator described the speech. Bishops react; includes comments from Bishop Aymond of Austin.