The Pope expressed his views on democracy, when receiving in audience the members of the International Theological Commission, who had just completed their annual plenary meeting, held in the Vatican this week under the presidency of Cardinal William Levada.
Pope Benedict XVI says:
“Natural law must be the foundation of democracy, so that those in power are not giving the chance to determine what is good or evil.”
"The problem that arises is not, then, the search for good but the search for power, or rather the balance of power."
"True rationality is not guaranteed by the consensus of the many, but only by the openness of human reason to the reason of the Creator and by listening together to this Source of our rationality."
"When fundamental essentials are at stake: human dignity, human life, the institution of the family and the equity of the social order -- in other words the fundamental rights of man -- no law made by men and women can subvert the norm written by the Creator in man's heart without society itself being dramatically struck ... at its very core.”
". . . natural law is a true guarantee for everyone to live freely and with respect for their dignity, protected from all ideological manipulation and from all arbitrary abuses of the powerful.”
"No one can disregard this appeal. If by reason of a tragic clouding of the collective conscience, skepticism and ethical relativism managed to annul the fundamental principles of natural moral law, the very democratic order itself would be profoundly undermined at its foundations."
"Against such clouding -- which is a crisis for human, even more than for Christian, civilization -- the consciences of all men and women of good will must be mobilized, both laypeople and followers of religions other than Christianity, so that together they may make an effective commitment to creating ... the conditions necessary for a full awareness of the inalienable value of natural moral law.”
"The advance of individuals and of society along the path of true progress depends upon respect for natural moral law, in conformity with right reason, which is participation in the eternal reason of God."
-- Feed from www.zenit.org (edited)
