God Preserve Us from Godless Philanthropy, by Joseph Pearce

LifeSiteNews: Archbishop Viganò: Third Secret of Fatima Has Not Yet Been Fully Published
April 23, 2020
Mass Online, by Randall Smith
April 23, 2020

When Christians trade the Holy Spirit for the spirit of the age, it leaves a void that secularists try to fill — too often, with miserable results.

By Joseph Pearce, EWTN News, 4/22/20

How exactly will the British “keep calm and carry on” during the crisis caused by the coronavirus? This is the question addressed by British journalist and historian Simon Heffer in an article published in the U.K.’s Sunday Telegraph on March 15. He regrets that “things we have taken for granted all our lives – ease of movement and of assembly, freedom from pestilence, indeed the very salubrity of life itself — are threatened.” He continues: “Apart from the profound consequence that many will die before what was expected to be their time, we shall be forced back on resources of character we did not know we had, and made to change patterns of behaviour for the common good.”

This is no doubt true but also somewhat run of the mill and not itself worthy of comment. What is noteworthy, however, is Mr. Heffer’s criticism of the archbishop of Canterbury for his conspicuous silence on the crisis, apart from the offering of mundane sanitary advice for church services. Why, Mr. Heffer wonders, is there such a worrying dearth of inspiring religious leaders to steer the United Kingdom through troubled waters? He then ventures to answer his own rhetorical question: “Perhaps [the Archbishop’s] inability to lead his flock in this crisis is the ultimate admission of the triumph of secularism … in which case he should go. It would be an ironic turn if it were left to the overtly godless – of which I am one – to form a new philosophy to console our people in a crisis whose most terrible impact is probably yet to come.” …

Read more here:  https://www.ncregister.com/blog/josephpearce/god-preserve-us-from-godless-philanthropy