Many speak of our culture suffering from a crisis of values.  Others go further and speak of lack of values.  The latter are open to a misinterpretation.   Has our culture actually lost some, many, or most values?  It might have lost some values;  but surely it has discovered quite some new values.  We won’t be fair with our culture if we say that the crisis of values lies in its loss of values.  Human dignity is a contemporary value;  the dignity and equality of woman is another value;  so also the care of the environment and of animals.  Yet, while we find nations drawing legislation in favour of birds and goldfish, we have other nations, if not the same, legalising abortion and euthanasia.  Are not such anomalies in our culture that manifest the symptoms of a crisis of values?  Values there are;  but somehow we lost the balance between them;  the scale and priorities fluctuate according to circumstances.  Does it make sense to diagnose our culture as one suffering from acute leukaemia?  A healthy person’s blood maintains a balance between the quantity of red and white cells.  Leukaemia is when that balance is lost and the blood starts producing more white cells than needed.  Does anyone has a cure for our culture’s leukaemia, crisis of values?  Do the Beatitudes of Jesus give us some hint?

Fr Paul Fenech