A leading American academic has issued a rallying call to Christians in a country where “the love affair with Jesus and his Gospel and his Church is over”.

In a major speech to delegates at the annual Legatus Summit of Catholic business leaders in Florida, and reported by Lifesite News, Professor Robert George of Princeton University, a high profile defender of life and traditional marriage said “it is no longer easy to be a faithful Christian, a good Catholic, an authentic witness to the truths of the Gospel” in a society where “the guardians of those norms of cultural orthodoxy that we have come to call ‘political correctness’” will tolerate Catholics as long as they don’t believe, or will at least be completely silent about, “what the Church teaches on issues such as marriage and sexual morality and the sanctity of human life.”

However, simultaneously, Prof. George added, Catholics themselves, “having become comfortable, had forgotten, or ignored, [the] timeless Gospel truth”.

“Fearing to place in jeopardy the wealth we have piled up, the businesses we have built, the professional and social standing we have earned, the security and tranquility we enjoy, the opportunities for worldly advancement we cherish, the connections we have cultivated, the relationships we treasure, will we silently acquiesce to the destruction of innocent human lives or the demolition of marriage?”

Reminding his audience that “one day we will give an account of all we have done and failed to do”, Prof. George concluded – to a standing ovation – “One thing alone will matter: let me say this with maximum clarity—whether we stood up for the truth, speaking it out loud and in public, bearing the costs of discipleship that are inevitably imposed on faithful witnesses to truth by cultures that turn away from God and his law. Or were we ashamed of the Gospel?