John Paul II on January 27, 1999 spoke during Vespers at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri. The following is a quote:
“And so America, If you want peace, work for justice. If you want justice, defend life. If you want life, embrace the truth – truth revealed by God.”
A year later on February 23, 2000, before the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, he said the following:
“(I)t is important that Christians be helped to show that the defence of universal and unchanging moral norms is a service rendered not only to individuals but also to society as a whole: such norms ‘represent the unshakable foundation and solid guarantee of a just and peaceful human coexistence, and hence of genuine democracy’ (Veritatis Splendor, 96). In fact, democracy itself is a means and not an end, and the ‘value of a democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes’ (Evangelium Vitae, 70). These values cannot be based on changeable opinion but only on the acknowledgment of an objective moral law..`(I)n a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation and man is exposed to the violence of passion and to manipulation, both open and hidden’ (Centesimus Annus, 46).”
Good thoughts when we enter the voting booth, or exercise our rights as citizens in assemblies, or try in good conscience to respond to political pressures.
