The postmodern world rejects all objectivity, stability, as well as normality. The call for principles is not popular in the present world, which is marked by the crisis of faith and reason.
This was the message of Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, in his homily at the grave of St. John Paul II in St. Peter’s Basilica, on October 4, 2018. The Poles presently in Rome participated in the Eucharist.
Archbishop Gadecki, referring to the teaching of St. Pope John Paul II, recalled his question about what modern man fears and the answer to the absence of a diagnosis of modern times.
“Modern man seems to be threatened by what he has made with his own hands and mind,” said Archbishop Gadecki, alluding to St. John Paul II’s words. He emphasized that people’s creations often not only turn against man but can also affect, along with him, everything that surrounds us.
“Through the scientific and technical progress, man’s world has been enriched richer with different possibilities, but it has become poorer in principles. We are discovering more and more roads that we could take, but we lack signposts,” said Archbishop Gadecki.
He observed that, in the modern world, the marginal, temporary and abnormal constitutes a point of reference. “The question of man’s identity and the reference to objective norms and principles have become irrelevant and unnecessary. In lieu and place of them, a cult of human autonomy has appeared that is so absolute that it leads to the annihilation of other human beings. This is so, for instance, when unborn children are killed or in the case of self-annihilation, for example, through suicidal euthanasia.”
Archbishop Gadecki said that “in the postmodern world, there is no longer any respect for true authorities, especially the authority of the Church, with its independence from the pressure of world opinion. What does seem to count is fluid opinion, as the whole postmodernity of celebrities and idols.”
“This new synod reminds us of the need to pray for all the world’s young, to whom the synod now beginning is dedicated,” concluded the Polish Episcopate’s President.
