The Catholic Church’s Enduring Answer to the Practical Atheism of Our Age
By Cardinal Robert Sarah
In a recent address to the Bishops of Cameroon, I minced no words about the threat of practical atheism in our age. I told them,
many Western prelates are paralyzed by the idea of opposing the world. They dream of being loved by the world. They have lost the concern of being a sign of contradiction…. I believe that the Church of our time is experiencing the temptation of atheism. Not intellectual atheism. But this subtle and dangerous state of mind: fluid and practical atheism. The latter is a dangerous disease even if its first symptoms seem mild.
By practical atheism, I mean a loss of the sense of the Gospel and the centrality of Jesus Christ. Scripture becomes a tool for a secular purpose rather than the call to conversion. This is becoming more common among regions of the West, as too many do not take the faith seriously and treat it as a hindrance to dialogue.
There is, of course, no pure atheism. One must put his or her trust in something. So, the question is not whether you believe in God or not, but what do you believe in; what is your lower-case “g” god? For many in the secular culture, it is sex and all its libertarian derivatives. For others, it is a positivist understanding of nature, where objective data is the only factor by which decisions should be made. And yet for others, it is wealth or power or social status or social activism.
All of these are corrupt and false idols by which we elevate something other than the one, true God, in all his majesty, love and mercy—just as the Israelites worshipped the Golden Calf. This is nothing new. Creation, in its many forms, has always competed with the Creator for our loyalty. What is of particular interest is how this sort of practical atheism has seeped into the Church. I would like to review what our three most recent popes have said about this as a reminder that the Church is the prophetic voice for our times and we must remain vigilant to voices from within that wish to alter her voice to something palatable to secular culture.
Saint Pope John Paul II
The great Pope Saint John Paul II understood the dangers of atheism as well as anyone. He lived through the horrors of a political system disconnected from God and all its consequences. While many of the horrors of atheistic communism and fascism happened within our lifetime, or at least within my lifetime, we seem to have forgotten its brutal lessons. Millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, of lives were sacrificed for ideological purposes driven by a loss of the sacred. Murder, torture, rape, families torn apart, and so many other horrific sins against the dignity of the person were committed in the name of lies that separate man from God.
Saint John Paul understood all of this and leveraged the weapons of faith against the atheism that emanated from communism and the East. On one level, he won that war but, at another level, the war continues at a global and national level—and even within each one of us. As Solzhenitsyn described it, “the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts.” This is the battle each of us faces and even the Church experiences it in an eschatological way. The battle is not “out there” but here, starting with each one of us.
This localization of the distancing from God is something each of us must examine on a regular basis. In what or whom do we find meaning? As I have said elsewhere: it must be God, otherwise we are left with nothing. This is true for each one of us but also for the Church herself.
In a 1999 General Audience, Pope John Paul spoke about a practical atheism that can be applied to some in the Church today:
Starting with Sacred Scripture, we immediately note that there is no mention of “theoretical” atheism, while there is a concern to reject “practical” atheism…. Rather than atheism, the Bible speaks of wickedness and idolatry. Whoever prefers a series of human products, falsely considered divine, living and active, to the true God is wicked and idolatrous.1
We see this in the Church when sociology or “lived experience” becomes the guiding principle that shape moral judgment. It is not an outright rejection of God, but it pushes God to the side. How often do we hear from theologians, priests, religious, and even some bishops or bishop conferences that we need to adjust our moral theology for considerations that are solely human? There is an attempt to ignore, if not reject, the traditional approach to moral theology as defined so well by Veritatis Splendor and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. If we do, everything becomes conditional and subjective.
None of the proponents of this paradigm shift within the Church reject God outright but they treat Revelation as secondary, or at least on equal footing with experience and modern science. This is how practical atheism works. It does not deny God but functions as if God is not central.
This expresses itself in a certain intolerance. As John Paul went on to say in the same General Audience:
Atheism can even become a kind of intolerant ideology.… [T]his systematic atheism has been widespread for decades, giving the illusion that by eliminating God, man would be freer, both psychologically and socially.2
There is an implied understanding by the proponents of practical atheism that faith somehow limits the person. They take St. Irenaeus’ axiom, “the glory of God is man fully alive” to mean the highest end of man is to be fully himself. This is true if we understand man as a creature made for God, but the practical atheists see God and his moral order as a limiting factor. Our happiness, according to this way of thinking, is found in being who we want to be rather than conforming ourselves to God and his order.
According to the practical atheists, tradition is binding, not freeing. And yet it is through our traditions that we more fully know ourselves. We are not isolated beings unconnected to our past. Our past is what shapes who we are today. Salvation history is the supreme example of this. It is all radically connected. We are a people who live within the context of who God created us to be, which has been received more deeply over the centuries but is always connected to the revelation of Christ, who is the same yesterday and today. To pursue fulfillment by lowering our sights to our experience, emotions, or desires is to reject who we are as God’s creatures, endowed with sublime dignity and created ultimately for Him.
Pope Benedict XVI
This brings us to Pope Benedict XVI. He, too, understood firsthand the dangers of atheism, explicit or implicit. His work as theologian, prefect, and pope had a particular emphasis on the life of faith in Europe, which he sought to renew. He understood the West was under attack from an atheism within the traditionally Christian cultures of Europe, and he was even more explicit than John Paul about his concerns regarding the loss of faith within the Church. As pope he said:
A particularly dangerous phenomenon for faith has arisen in our times: indeed, a form of atheism exists which we define, precisely, as “practical”, in which the truths of faith or religious rites are not denied but are merely deemed irrelevant to daily life, detached from life, pointless. So it is that people often believe in God in a superficial manner, and live “as though God did not exist” (etsi Deus non daretur). In the end, however, this way of life proves even more destructive because it leads to indifference to faith and to the question of God.3
In a 1958 lecture, years before Vatican II, which suggests our current situation has roots much deeper than the cultural revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s, he said that the Church:
is no longer, as she once was, a Church composed of pagans who have become Christians, but a Church of pagans who still call themselves Christians, but actually have become pagans. Paganism resides today in the Church herself, and precisely that is the characteristic of the Church of our day, and that of the new paganism, so that it is a matter of a paganism in the Church, and of a Church in whose heart paganism is living.4
That there exists a practical atheism in the Church is more apparent now than it was when Joseph Ratzinger made these observations and it comes in the loss of devout Christian living, or an obvious Christian culture, and in the form of public dissent, sometimes from high-ranking officials or prominent institutions.
How many Catholics attend weekly Mass? How many are involved in the local church? How many live as if Christ exists, or as if Christ is found in his or her neighbor, or with the firm belief that the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ? How many believe in the Real Presence? The answer is too few. We live as if we do not need redemption through the Blood of Christ. That is the practical reality for too many in the Church. The crisis is not so much the secular world and its evils, but the lack of faith within the Church.
The synodal process, particularly in a few European countries, is an example where dissident views are promoted within the context of the institutional Church. We are told that the Synod on Synodality is to bring the whole Church into dialogue. Perhaps this can be a path through which the Holy Spirit speaks to the Church. That would be a blessing. There is concern, however, that this is not a path through which the sensus fidelium is exercised. Just because someone identifies as Catholic does not mean they are part of the sensus fidelium. To be Catholic is more than a cultural identification; it is a profession of faith. It has a particular content of faith. To move outside that content, both in belief and practice, is to move outside the faith. And it is a grave danger to consider all voices legitimate. As Cardinal Ratzinger said:
A faith we can decide for ourselves is no faith at all. And no minority has any reason to allow a majority to prescribe what it should believe. Either the faith and its practice come to us from the Lord by way of the Church and her sacramental services, or there is no such thing.5
There is a desire by many to be “free” to determine one’s own good and proper end. This is a hallmark of modern society. As Cardinal Ratzinger said,
the implicit goal of all of modernity’s struggles for freedom is to be at last like a god who depends on nothing and no one, and whose own freedom is not restricted by that of another.6
This attitude toward freedom seems to be growing within the Church. Recently the relator-general for the Synod expressed openness to the prospect of women’s ordination, suggesting doctrine can change. This is the sort of thing that Catholics should believe is impossible and yet we have a senior ranking official espousing an ecclesiology that rejects the stability of doctrine. The implication, of course, is that we are free to define the faith as we see fit. This is not Catholic, and it is a source of great confusion that is harming the Church and the faithful. Thankfully, Pope Francis has been clear that this is not possible, but confusion grows around these questions when the global synodal process encourages such considerations.
Cardinal Ratzinger identified this crisis of faith, this practical atheism, as the fruit of bad ecclesiology. He said this:
the Church of Christ is not a party, not an association, not a club. Her deep and permanent structure is not democratic but sacramental, consequently hierarchical. For the hierarchy based on the apostolic succession is the indispensable condition to arrive at the strength, the reality of the sacrament. Her authority is not based on the majority of votes; it is based on the authority of Christ himself, which he willed to pass on to men who were to be his representatives until his definitive return.7
This is the heart of the matter. The faith, the Church, is based on Christ. Without Christ, we have nothing. Too many in the Church find the heart of the faith in her affiliates. Yes, in a certain sense we make up the mystical body of Christ but only to the degree that we live in Christ and our faith is centered in Christ.
Pope Francis
Pope Francis has continued the call against atheism. He does it differently than John Paul II and Benedict XVI, but he is clear that life without God is a path to destruction. Back in 2015 he said:
In a society increasingly marked by secularism and threatened by atheism, we run the risk of living as if God did not exist. People are often tempted to take the place of God, to consider themselves the criterion of all things, to control them, to use everything according to their own will. It is so important to remember, however, that our life is a gift from God, and that we must depend on him, confide in him, and turn towards him always.8
The Holy Father understands there are pockets within the Church that do not live from the heart of Jesus. He exhorts bishops and priests to live lives that are consistent with the Gospel. He has said repeatedly that the eclipse of God leads to the destruction of man. Let us take his call to remember God seriously, especially for those of us in the Church.
A Sign of Contradiction
Where do we go from here? Let me speak to the question as a bishop. Bishops need to raise their voices and become clear teachers of the faith, witnessing by both word and holiness of life. The unity of faith comes through the office of bishop, which must be reaffirmed today. There is too much confusion circling the Church, and it is up to us bishops to provide clarity so the lay faithful can themselves be witnesses to the truth.
This requires a willingness to be a sign of contradiction (see Lk 2:34) to the contemporary world and, yes, to parts of the contemporary church. This responsibility will be fulfilled through right teaching and holiness—holiness that is rooted in a relationship with Christ. As Pope Francis has said,
There is no witness without a coherent lifestyle! Today there is no great need for masters, but for courageous witnesses, who are convinced and convincing; witnesses who are not ashamed of the Name of Christ and of His Cross.9
The cultural atheism that has taken over the West does not have to take over the Church here in the United States. You have good episcopal leadership, good young priests, communities with young, vibrant Catholic families. You must foster the growth of all of this for the sake of your families, but also for the sake of the global Church.
Imagine what could happen if America were to become home to even more vibrant Catholic communities! If Catholics in this country can be a sign of contradiction to your culture, the Holy Spirit will do great things through you.
Robert Cardinal Sarah was born in Guinea, West Africa. He is Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and serves as a member on several Vatican Dicasteries. He has written several books, including God or Nothing and The Power of Silence. This article was abridged from an address given to the Napa Institute on June 13, 2024 at the Catholic University of America. Read the full speech.
Pope John Pau II, General Audience, April 14, 1999.
Ibid.
Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, November 14, 2012.
Joseph Ratzinger, “The New Pagans in the Church,” 1958.
Joseph Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), Part 2, Section 1.
Joseph Ratzinger, “Truth and Freedom,” Communio 23 (Spring 1996), p28.
Joseph Ratzinger, The Ratzinger Report (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1985), p49.
Pope Francis, Address to members of the delegation of Conference of European Rabbis, April 20, 2015.
Pope Francis, Homily to new metropolitan archbishops, June 29, 2015.