Vague Moralism...

It is indeed true that a new moralism exists today. Its key words are justice, peace, and the conservation of creation…But this moralism remains vague and almost inevitably remains confined to the sphere of party politics, where it is primarily a claim addressed to others, rather than a personal duty in our own daily life.
http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/blog/2007/02/it-is-indeed-true-that-new-moralism.html
http://haloscan.com/tb/blostopher/1793377061101986157

An old blog, of an older thought of Benedict's.

It caught my eye, because there was a goofy prayer of the faithful this weekend, I don't remember exactly how it was phrased, something about the rights of laborers. (DISCLAIMER: yes, I am a liberal, a card-carrying union member, etc., etc., etc.... but how can the rights of laborers, per se, outweigh the rights of employers, per se? We are all God's children, no?)

Anyway, I remembered how last spring on some blog everyone was talking about the loopy General Intercessions we had heard the day before, and realized that our pastors were NOT making these up themselves. Shortly after that, we'd all heard the same borderline-ungrammatical plea. And for a while we'd noticed loooooooooong statements, as opposed to actual petitions -- it made me think God ought to have a little cosmic counsellor-at-law raising a sarcastic Jack McCoy on Law & Order-type objection --"Is there a question in there, yer honor?" "Is there a request in there, Almighty?" (Since then, I've indeed come across books, services and I think CD roms that provide Prayers of the Faithful for the entire Liturgical Cycle, so that heaven forbid, we don't all just simply pray "For...." what the GIRM or Missal indicates we are to pray for. This is not all bad. It probably forestalls many a LitCom from fabricating nonsense, and many a deacon from putting in a plug for his favorite sports franchise.)

Wandered a bit there, but back to my original point -- such a petition as the one this past weekend is reflective of guilt for a sin virtually no one in the congregation was in a petition to commit.We're blue collar.We are, for the most part, Labor, not Capital, not even Management.Our actions, in support of preventing a denial of the Rights of Workers? Basically, they can only be political.And that's what we do nowadays -- our concerns, our causes are all corporate, they must be, they must never be personal.Because otherwise, we'd have to admit that we sin as individuals. That our sins are personal, that MY GUILT IS MINE. Governments, corporations, political parties, cultures, peoples -- theirs are the only sins we are allowed to acknowledge and they are the only sinners we're allowed to accuse. And a nation can't fit in a confessional.It's so much more comfortable to admit to other peoples' sins.

Herr Ratzinger too has noticed that.