The Catechism of the Summa -SECOND SECTION - A DETAILED SURVEY OF MAN'S RETURN TO GOD - III. OF THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST THAT CORRESPOND TO FAITH: OF UNDERSTANDING, AND KNOWLEDGE: OF THE SINS OPPOSED TO THEM, NAMELY, OF IGNORANCE, OF BLINDNESS OF MIND, AND OF HEBETUDE OF THE SENSES (C)

(C)  
Is this gift of special importance to the faithful in these days?

Yes, for it carries with it the remedy par excellence for one of the greatest evils that has afflicted humanity since the Renaissance.
 
Of what evil is there question?

It is the prevalence of false science which fails to understand the true relation between creatures and God, who is the First Truth and the last end of man: in the speculative order it has made the study of creatures an insurmountable obstacle to the truths of faith; and in the practical order it has renewed the old pagan depravity which is all the more pernicious seeing that it succeeded the peerless lives of virtue practised by the saints.
 
Is this one of the principal causes of the evil that is rife in the world and is the bane of modern society?

Yes, without doubt.
 
The virtue of faith then with the accompanying gifts of understanding and knowledge is one of the most powerful remedies against the impiousness and the aloofness from God of modern society?

Yes, the virtue of faith with these gifts is one of the most powerful remedies against this evil.

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