It’s hard to keep track, but here’s more words from Benedict to the Swiss bishops. A summary of his closing talk to the Swiss bishops – again, delivered off-the-cuff, on November 9.

Another theme to which the Holy Father turned his attention during his address to the prelates was that of ethics. "I often hear it said that people today feel nostalgia for God, spirituality and religion, and that they begin to see the Church as a possible interlocutor from which something may be received in this regard. … However, what people find very difficult are the ethics the Church proclaims. I have long reflected upon this matter, and I see ever more clearly how, in our time, it is as if ethics have divided into two parts. Modern society is not simply ethic-less but has, so to say, ‘discovered’ and claimed another aspect of ethics which, in the Church’s announcement over recent decades … has not been sufficiently emphasized. This includes the great themes of peace, non-violence, justice for all, care for the poor and respect for creation.

"All this," he added, "has grown into an ethical system which has great power as a political force and, for many people, represents a substitute or surrogate for religion. In place of religion, which is seen as a metaphysical entity concerning the hereafter – perhaps even as something individualistic – these great moral themes appear to be the essential questions that confer dignity upon man."

"The other aspect of ethics, which politics not infrequently takes up in a highly controversial manner, concerns life. Part of this is the commitment to life from conception to natural death; in other words, defending life against abortion and euthanasia, against its manipulation, and against man’s self- legitimization to dispose of life as he chooses. Often, people seek to justify such intervention with the apparently exalted intention of its being useful to future generations."

"The ethics of marriage and the family are part of the same context. Marriage is, so to say, becoming ever more marginalized. We know the example of certain countries where there have been legislative modifications according to which marriage is no longer defined as a bond between man and woman, but as a bond between persons. This clearly destroys the basic idea (of marriage), and society, from its very roots, becomes something completely different."

Benedict XVI went on: "The belief that sexuality, eros and marriage, as the union between a man and a woman, go together … is becoming ever weaker. All kinds of union appear absolutely normal," and "this is presented as a kind of morality of non-discrimination and a form of freedom that is mankind’s due. Thus the indissolubility of marriage has become an almost utopian idea." Moreover, although "the problem of the disturbing drop in birth rates has multiple explanations," a decisive factor is that "people have little faith in the future," and that "the family as a durable community" is considered an unattainable goal.

"In these areas, then, our announcement comes up against a counter-belief of society, with a sort of anti-morality based on its concept of freedom as the faculty to decide autonomously without predefined guidance, as non- discrimination, and hence as the approval of all possibilities."

"But other beliefs have not disappeared. They exist, and I believe we must make every effort to bring these two parts of ethics back together, and make it clear that they are inseparably linked. … I believe we are facing a great task: on the one hand, ensuring that Christianity does not appear as mere moralism but as a gift in which we are given a love that supports us. … On the other hand, in this context of donated love, we must advance towards giving concrete form (to our ideas), on the foundation of the Ten Commandments which, with Christ and the Church, we must read in our own time in a new and progressive light."

In case you’re interested, German and Italian texts are here.