Certainly, it is difficult to make the demands of the Gospel understandable to secularized people. But this pastoral difficulty must not lead to compromises with the truth.
No one is forced to be a Christian. But no one should be forced to live according to the "new religion" as though it alone were definitive and obligatory for all mankind.
That Christianity gives joy and breadth is also a thread that runs through my whole life. Ultimately someone who is always only in opposition could not endure life at all.
One can readily admit that the Magisterium's manner of expression does not seem very easy to understand at times. It needs to be translated by preachers and catechists into a language which relates to people and to their respective cultural environments. The essential content of the Church's teaching, however, must be upheld in this process. It must not be watered down on allegedly pastoral grounds, because it communicates the revealed truth.
To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth – that is not living, but existing.
So I learn that some animal rights activists committed sacrilege in protesting at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
Papal delusion at it's finest is on fine display in this general audience by Pope Paul VI, just a week or so before the Novus Ordo Missae was introduced.
Distinctions Matter
Distinctions Matter Forward
Missale Romanum
Pre-1951 Calendar