Twenty years after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger warned of a “dictatorship of relativism”—days before he was elected Pope Benedict XVI—his former secretary, Bishop Georg Gänswein, echoed that warning at a recent conference in Lithuania.
Former prefect of the Papal Household and personal secretary to Benedict XVI for many years, Archbishop Gänswein drew on the late pontiff’s philosophy in delivering the keynote address at a conference that brought together academics, civic leaders, public intellectuals and clerics to debate the principles of the 2021 Šiluva Declaration.
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The declaration advocates the defense of fundamental human rights, the promotion of virtue and the promotion of the common good of society. It recognized the importance of a society built on the pillars of truth, family values, human dignity and faith in God, and has since become a moral reference for Catholic social thinkers in Lithuania.
Gänswein’s lecture offered a profound philosophical and theological reflection on faith, reason and relativism, aspects he described as a “constant theme in Ratzinger’s work.” The archbishop, who now serves as apostolic nuncio to the Baltic States, warned that when faith or reason weakens, this inevitably leads to “pathologies and the disintegration of the human person.”
This is the third conference dedicated to reflecting on the Siluva Declaration, published on September 12, 2021, during the city’s annual Marian festival, which hosts a shrine dedicated to one of Europe’s first approved apparitions.
Archbishop Kęstutis Kėvalas delivered the opening address of the conference, urging vigilance against the temptation to experiment with human nature and dignity. He also reminded attendees that the Marian sanctuary of Siluva symbolizes fidelity to the divine order in creation.
“The sacred place of Siluva invites respect for the order that the Creator has given to this world,” he stated.
Bishop Gänswein pointed out that, in the face of today’s great challenges, such as technological thinking and globalization, the first step must be to recover the full breadth of reason. He described true reason as intrinsically truthful, contrasting it with relativism, which he called “an expression of weak and narrow-minded thinking…based on the false pride of believing that human beings cannot recognize the truth and the false humility of refusing to accept it.”
“The truth sets us free,” he added, quoting John 8:32 and noting that truth serves as the yardstick by which human beings must measure themselves and that embracing it requires humility.
Archbishop Gänswein concluded by warning that relativism—the defining mentality of modernity, which he described as “an insidious poison”—ultimately undermines human freedom. Driven by self-righteousness and amplified by social media, relativism blinds people to the truth and their ultimate purpose, he said.
The true objective of humanity, he stated, is “to come to the knowledge of the truth, which is God, and thus achieve eternal life.” His speech was received with prolonged applause.
The conference also included a series of thought-provoking talks on Lithuania’s moral and political identity, the challenges of liberal democracy, post-Soviet social changes, and the role of faith and family in public life. It concluded with a round table on the moral orientation of Europe, freedom of expression and the renewal of Christian values in society.
The Archbishop of Vilnius, Bishop Gintaras Grušas, recalled the words of Pope Leo He stressed that all Christians, including those who participate in public life, have the duty to defend the truth, which he described as “not an abstract idea, but a path through which a person discovers true freedom.”
The conference was jointly organized by the Lithuanian civic organization Laisvos visuomenės institutas (Institute of a Free Society), the Lithuanian Union of Christian Workers and the Faculty of Catholic Theology of Vytautas Magnus University.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.
Bryan Lawrence Gonsalves
Bryan Lawrence Gonsalves is an UAE-born apologist and essayist currently residing in Lithuania. His work focuses on Catholic social teaching, theology, human dignity, and contemporary social problems.