CV NEWS FEED // Bishop Mark Davies of the Diocese of Shrewsbury in the United Kingdom encouraged Catholics in a pastoral letter to hand on their faith to future generations while reflecting on the 2025 Jubilee year.
The Feb. 23 letter states that Catholics receive the gift of faith through the Church, and that the Church nourishes and sustains the faithful throughout their lives.
The Bishop explained, “For we can no more give ourselves this gift of faith than we can give ourselves the gift of life.”
Bishop Davies wrote the letter from Shrewsbury Cathedral, which is a pilgrimage site for the Jubilee Year 2025. He noted that the Cathedral is a silent testimony of the faith of the diocese.
He also wrote about the importance of adhering to the Apostle’s Creed, which was written in 325. Pope Francis has invited Catholics to celebrate its 1,700th anniversary during the Jubilee Year.
The UK bishop also addressed those who disparage “organized religion.”
“They suggest a ‘disorganised religion’ is more authentic though it would amount to little more than opinions drawn from ever-changing views around us,” the Bishop wrote. “Such an answer to the great questions of life can never be a secure foundation.”
Instead, he wrote, the Creed offers a sure foundation to build one’s life in faith, hope, and charity.
Bishop Davies also wrote that the Creed itself was necessary after the heretic Arius spread the error that Christ is not God but only an exalted creature.
“This dark error occasioned a luminous profession of the Church’s faith, that has echoed through the centuries,” Bishop Davies wrote. “For with all the Church we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ who is ‘God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father;’ and ‘through him all things were made.’”
Bishop Davies wrote that as bishop, the heart of his mission is to hand on the faith, which is also the call of every baptized and confirmed Catholic.
“In our Cathedral church, we remember the courage and generosity of the founding generation of this Diocese, who in the face of every difficulty and contradiction, handed down the faith to us,” he concluded. “Let us ask Our Lady’s help in this sacred trust of handing on the faith we have received to all generations to come.”
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