{"id":333,"date":"2012-06-19T10:07:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T10:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/cardinal-dolan-contrasts-true-freedom-culture-of-death-in-new-ebook\/"},"modified":"2012-06-19T10:07:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T10:07:00","slug":"cardinal-dolan-contrasts-true-freedom-culture-of-death-in-new-ebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/06\/cardinal-dolan-contrasts-true-freedom-culture-of-death-in-new-ebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinal Dolan contrasts true freedom, ‘culture of death’ in new eBook"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

New York City, N.Y., Jun 19, 2012 \/ 04:07 am (CNA<\/a>).- Society faces a choice between true human dignity, and a false concept of freedom culminating in the \u201cculture of death,\u201d New York's Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan explains in his new eBook.<\/p>\n

\tThis inhumane culture springs from \u201cdeeply rooted social, philosophical, and ethical tendencies that, unfortunately, often find their expression in our laws and in our attitudes toward others,\u201d the cardinal writes in \u201cTrue Freedom: On Protecting Human Dignity and Religious Liberty,\u201d released June 19.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cTo this culture of death,\u201d he writes, \u201cthe Church boldly and joyfully promotes the culture of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIn a work of just over 5,000 words, Cardinal Dolan develops Blessed John Paul II's understanding of the natural law, whose God-given principles are known through reason and confirmed by faith. They are the source of the Church's teaching on subjects such as human life and religious freedom.<\/p>\n

\tCardinal Dolan's eBook aims to propose these principles anew, to a culture suffering what the late Pope called an \u201ceclipse of the sense of God and of man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIn only the past few years,\u201d the New York archbishop states, the U.S. has experienced \u201crampant disregard\u201d for religious faith and human dignity \u2013 as shown in the approval of embryonic research, the torture of prisoners, disregard for the definition of marriage, and the federal contraception mandate.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe can see that there is a loss here of a sense of truth and objective moral norms \u2013 rules of conduct that apply always, to everyone, everywhere,\u201d the cardinal observes.<\/p>\n

\tIn place of the natural law, society has begun to substitute \u201cpragmatism, utilitarianism, and consumerism,\u201d all of which have no higher goal than the satisfaction of individuals' personal preferences.<\/p>\n

\tThese ideologies, Cardinal Dolan explains, have tragic consequences, especially when applied to issues of human life and moral conscience.<\/p>\n

\tIn his own archdiocese of New York, 40 percent of all pregnancies end in abortion. \u201cAnd any effort to curtail this unfettered access to abortion,\u201d the cardinal notes, \u201cis turned back by a culture that places a greater value on 'what I want,' 'when I want,' 'because I want,' than it does on life itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMoral conscience, meanwhile, is also threatened by a governing philosophy that makes no distinction between deeply-held principles, and passing desires.<\/p>\n

\tCardinal Dolan cites Pope Benedict XVI's famous 2005 warning against a \u201cdictatorship of relativism \u2026 whose ultimate goal consists solely of one\u2019s own ego and desires.\u201d He also highlights an address delivered by the Pope to German lawmakers in 2011.<\/p>\n

\tIn that speech, the Pope spoke of a \u201cdramatic shift\u201d away from laws rooted in moral principles. In their place stands a \u201cpositivist conception of nature\u201d that treats moral beliefs as nothing more than subjective, private preferences.<\/p>\n

\tCiting the Pope's words to the German parliament, the New York archbishop notes that the separation of law from morality \u201cfails to recognize the full breadth of human nature, and in fact both 'diminishes man' and 'threatens his humanity.'\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe real issue in all of these controversies, Cardinal Dolan suggests, is the competition between two visions of freedom: one rooted in human dignity and the natural law, the other arising from efforts to treat morality as subjective and religion as irrelevant.<\/p>\n

\tQuoting Pope Leo XIII, the cardinal teaches that authentic freedom is \u201cthat freedom which most truly safeguards the dignity of the human person. It is stronger than any violence or injustice. Such is the freedom which has always been desired by the Church, and which she holds most dear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe \u201cTrue Freedom\u201d eBook contains a set of questions addressed to the country at large, as a cultural and political \u201cexamination of conscience\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIs genuine freedom,\u201d Cardinal Dolan asks, \u201cthe license to do what we ought or the ability to do whatever we want? \u2026 Is law tethered to objective truth, or is it ruled by a 'dictatorship of relativism'?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cShould laws be tailored to suit changing wants, demands, or recently discovered 'rights'?\u201d the cardinal asks. \u201cOr should wants, demands, and novel rights be tempered by law to uphold the sacredness of life, the common good, and the objective moral law?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tAs the country face these questions, the issue of religious liberty becomes especially urgent.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cChurches and people of faith \u2013 not exclusively Catholics and their bishops, although I would hope that we play a leading role \u2013 understand the inherent dignity of the human person and serve as a safeguard against attacks on that dignity,\u201d the Cardinal points out.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIf we allow the human person to become a thing, and a human life to become a commodity that can be valued more or less depending on circumstance, political ideology, or current whims,\u201d he warns, \u201cthen we have embarked on a perilous path.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPublished by Random House Digital, \u201cTrue Freedom\u201d is available June 19 for 99 cents at http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/True-Freedom-Protecting-Religious-ebook\/dp\/B0086N7AHY\/.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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