2012 Cardinal Ambrozic Lecture – Video Available | Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute – Affiliated with the University of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto

As the Cardinal emphasized, there is much to admire and celebrate about our current culture; however, he identified several unspoken, erroneous and ultimately destructive assumptions operative in society. Foremost among them is the turn to a subjectivist world view that skews our understanding of conscience and rejects both objective moral norms and objective, permanent commitment. It is a worldview that is highly individualistic and feckless, replacing intellectual rigour with emotional response and forgoing the covenantal foundations that make committed loving relationships possible. As the Cardinal pointed out, we are commanded to love all persons deeply and profoundly day in and day out. Current culture, meanwhile, portrays unconditional love as an emotional reflex when in fact we must engage in discernment in order to judge what this love requires of us.

According to the Cardinal, one way that Catholics can evangelize this individualistic culture is to turn to our belief in a Triune God and adopt a relational understanding of humankind. In other words, believing that we are made in the image and likeness of God, we must realize our calling to live in and build communities of life and love. However, even here we are challenged not to be insular but to face outwards—moving out to the streets, as Pope Francis urges us. As we do this, we must have complete reverence for all people we encounter. Our love for others must be a practical love, perhaps even a sacrificial love. It is a love that must above all be faithful, as Jesus’ love is. And we must reject the idea of conscience as being a “feeling” and understand it instead as our faculty for moral judgment through which we discern what is right, with the goal of conforming our actions to objective moral norms.

In closing, the Cardinal reiterated that we are indeed living in a time of great blessings and that we have many, many things to celebrate. However, we must not simply accept the erroneous assumptions prevalent in our society—assumptions that have the potential to lead us astray and cause great suffering to individuals and to our culture as a whole. Instead, in the Year of Faith, Catholics are called to evangelize the culture by creating true communities of practical love modeled on our Triune God.

Bridget Campion, PhD

On April 25 Cardinal Thomas Collins delivered the 2013 Cardinal Ambrozic Lecture in Bioethics. Entitled “Evangelizing the Culture,” the lecture acknowledged the blessings of our culture but noted the dangers hidden in our modern social mores. As the Cardinal emphasized, there is much to admire and celebrate about our current culture; however, he identified several unspoken, erroneous and ultimately destructive assumptions operative in society. Foremost among them is the turn to a subjectivist world view that skews our understanding of conscience and rejects both objective moral norms and objective, permanent commitment. It is a worldview that is highly individualistic and feckless, replacing intellectual rigour with emotional response and forgoing the covenantal foundations that make committed loving relationships possible. As the Cardinal pointed out, we are commanded to love all persons deeply and profoundly day in and day out. Current culture, meanwhile, portrays unconditional love as an emotional reflex when in fact we must engage in discernment in order to judge what this love requires of us. According to the Cardinal, one way that Catholics can evangelize this individualistic culture is to turn to our belief in a Triune God and adopt a relational understanding of humankind. In other words, believing that we are made in the image and likeness of God, we must realize our calling to live in and build communities of life and love. However, even here we are challenged not to be insular but to face outwards—moving out to the streets, as Pope Francis urges us. As we do this, we must have complete reverence for all people we encounter. Our love for others must be a practical love, perhaps even a sacrificial love. It is a love that must above all be faithful, as Jesus’ love is. And we must reject the idea of conscience as being a “feeling” and understand it instead as our faculty for moral judgment through which we discern what is right, with the goal of conforming our actions to objective moral norms. In closing, the Cardinal reiterated that we are indeed living in a time of great blessings and that we have many, many things to celebrate. However, we must not simply accept the erroneous assumptions prevalent in our society—assumptions that have the potential to lead us astray and cause great suffering to individuals and to our culture as a whole. Instead, in the Year of Faith, Catholics are called to evangelize the culture by creating true communities of practical love modelled on our Triune God. Bridget Campion, PhD