The Land of the Free
Pope John Paul II
July 1, 2000
On February 3, 2000, Pope John Paul II's American representative Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo delivered a message from the Holy Father to the fiftieth National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. The pope's words offered the political leaders gathered there a profound challenge to make America a nation where "freedom is ordered to truth and goodness." His words are particularly appropriate as our country debates how to use potentially freeing, and potentially destructive, technologies of life. The century just ended has shown clearly that immense suffering results when economic and political systems do not respect the full truth about man, his spiritual nature, and his quest for the transcendent in his search for truth and freedom. Where this kind of vision is lacking. Scripture tells us, "the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18). Is not the quest for a social order in which all members of the human family can flourish and live in a manner worthy of their innate dignity the great moral challenge of this new millennium? … This great project—the building of a world more worthy of the human person, a society which can foster a renaissance of the human spirit—calls also for that sense of moral responsibility which flows from commitment to truth: "walking the path of truth," as the Apostle John puts it (3 John 3). And such a moral responsibility, by its very nature, cannot be reduced to a purely private matter. The light of Christ should illumine every thought, word and action of believers; there is no area of personal or social life which it is not meant to penetrate, enliven and make fruitful. The spread of a purely utilitarian approach to the great moral issues of public life points to the urgent need for a rigorous ...
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