Pope Benedict's Pastoral Advice for America.(Pope Benedict XVI on United States' moral relativism)

Our intellectually inch-deep media could not really have been expected to report the thoughtful messages Pope Benedict XVI conveyed to the U.S. public during his April visit. It's far easier for reporters to speak of enthusiastic crowds (but falling Mass attendance!) or to speak about this "surprisingly" humble, gentle man (but a Church riven by dissent!).

And that's a shame, because Pope Benedict did not come bearing platitudes. He sought to recall Americans, and the global community at the United Nations, to the roots of our professed beliefs about human life, human rights, and human dignity.

He spoke to Catholic bishops in the United States about the moral relativism and secularization that have so dominated public and private attitudes, even in America, that "[f]aith becomes a passive acceptance that certain things 'out there' are true, but without practical relevance for everyday life."

While America may express a majoritarian belief in the inestimable value of every human life, if that expression lacks deep foundations rooted in God's personal love for every human being, it is at risk of standing like a storefront on a stage set. It may easily be toppled under the pressure of personal suffering or appeals to alleviate the suffering of others.

Many churchgoing Americans, observed Benedict, are "living as if God did not exist." And the temptation to conform "to the spirit of the age," he adds, can be seen "in an acute way in the scandal given by Catholics who promote an alleged right to abortion."

Note that there is nothing sectarian about Benedict's remarks. We are overwhelmingly a nation of "believers" and few of us would dispute his statement to children with disabilities and their caregivers at St. Joseph's Seminary in New York: "Faith helps us to break open the horizon beyond our own selves in order to see life as God does. God's unconditional love ... points to a meaning and purpose for all human life."

As many have noted, today Pope Benedict is the preeminent defender of reason as a path to truthnotably, the truth about the human person. Reason can lead us to see the societal value in defending the lives of the elderly, the dying, and those of any age with severe disabilities.