Ronald Reagan “Shining City” speech at the first CPAC conference in 1974.
“We cannot escape our destiny, nor should we try to do so. The leadership of the free world was thrust upon us two centuries ago in that little hall of Philadelphia. In the days following World War II, when the economic strength and power of America was all that stood between the world and the return to the dark ages, Pope Pius XII said, ‘The American people have a great genius for splendid and unselfish actions. Into the hands of America God has placed the destinies of an afflicted mankind.’”
“We are indeed, and we are today, the last best hope of man on earth.”
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Main excerpt(s):
“...[back] when societies were governed by the inhuman principle: “cuius regio eius religio”. By virtue of this principle, rulers forcibly imposed their own religious convictions on their subjects, violating the basic rights of conscience.
RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE MUST BE DEFENDED
Pope John Paul II
http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2RTCON.HTM
Homily given on May 22, 1995
....in the difficult post-Reformation period, when societies were governed by the inhuman principle: “cuius regio eius religio”. By virtue of this principle, rulers forcibly imposed their own religious convictions on their subjects, violating the basic rights of conscience. .....
[..]
... One can feel either admiration or hatred for someone who prefers to give his life rather than betray the voice of his own conscience, but certainly one cannot remain indifferent. The martyrs have so many things to tell us; first and foremost, they challenge us about the state of our conscience, they challenge everyone about fidelity to their own conscience.
Our consciences must be based on truth. Conscience...[is called] “man’s most secret core, and his sanctuary” and explains: “Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, tells him inwardly at the right moment: do this, shun that” (Gaudium et spes, n. 16).
As we see from this quotation, conscience is a vitally important issue for every individual. It is our inner guide and also the judge of our actions. How important it is therefore for our conscience to be upright, to make judgements based on truth, to call good and evil, to know howin the Apostle’s wordsto “prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2).
Today our homeland is facing many difficult social, economic and political problems. They must be solved with wisdom and perseverance. The most important of all, however, remains the problem of a just moral order. This order is the foundation of every individual’s life and of the life of every society. For this reason, today Poland urgently and primarily needs men and women of conscience!
To be a person of conscience means first of all, obeying one’s own conscience in every situation and not silencing its inner voice, even if it is sometimes severe and demanding. It means working for what is good and increasing it within and around oneself, and never giving into evil, in the spirit of St. Paul’s words: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21).
To be a person of conscience means being demanding with oneself, getting up again after falling, being ever converted anew.
To be a person of conscience means working to build up the kingdom of Godthe kingdom of truth and life, of justice, love and peacein our families, in the communities in which we live and throughout our homeland. It also means courageously assuming responsibility for public affairs; it means being concerned for the common good and not closing our eyes to the misery and needs of our neighbor, in a spirit of Gospel solidarity: “Bear one another’s burdens” (Gal 6:2).
...Our 20th century has been a period in which human consciences have been particularly violated. In the name of totalitarian ideologies, millions of people were forced to act against their deepest convictions. Central and Eastern Europe has had unusually painful experiences in this respect. We recall this period when consciences were suppressed, when human dignity was despised, when so many innocent people suffered for deciding to remain faithful to their convictions. We recall the outstanding role taken in those difficult times by the Church in defending the rights of conscience, and not only for the benefit of believers.
In those years we often asked ourselves: Can history swim against the tide of conscience? At what price can it do so? I ask again: at what price?... This price is unfortunately the deep wounds in the nation’s moral fiber, open wounds which still need a long time to heal.
Those times, times of great trial for conscience must be remembered, since for us they are an ever timely warning and exhortation to vigilance: that Polish consciences may not yield to demoralization, that they may not surrender to the trends of moral permissiveness, that they may discover the liberating nature of the teaching of the Gospel and the commandments of God, that in making decisions they may be mindful of Christ’s warning: “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life?” (Mk 8:36-37).
Despite appearances, the rights of conscience must be defended today as well. In the name of tolerance, a powerful intolerance, perhaps an ever more powerful intolerance, is actually spreading in public life and in the mass media. Believers are painfully aware of it. They notice the increasing tendency to marginalize them from the life of society: what is most sacred to them is sometimes mocked and ridiculed. These forms of recurring discrimination arouse great concern and should be a cause for much reflection.
Brothers and sisters! .... do not forget that this life depends first of all on how man will be, on how his conscience will be. Therefore we cry out in prayer:
“Come, Holy Spirit...
Come, Light of men’s hearts.
Wash clean the sinful soul, rain down your grace on the parched soul...
Warm the ice-cold heart, and give direction to the wayward”. Come, Light of consciences!
Christ’s Cross is the sign of our salvation
“Stat crux dum volvitur orbis”. On the paths of the human conscience, which are sometimes so difficult and complicated, God has put up a great “road sign” giving definitive meaning and direction to human life. It is the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. ..
Hail, O Cross of Christ! The Cross of Christ is the sign of our salvation, the sign of our faith and the sign of our hope. St. Paul writes: “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called... the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:23-24).
The Cross reminds us of the price of our salvation. It speaks of what great value man has in God’s eyesevery man!if God loved him even unto the Cross: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (Jn 13:1). How much this “to the end” says to us. God so loves, he loves man “to the end”. The Cross of Christ is precisely the proof of this. Can we remain indifferent to such a proof of love?
Dear brothers and sisters! In our Polish land the Cross has had its own history now for over 1,000 years. It is the history of salvation which has been written into the history of the great human community that is our nation. Down the centuries, in periods of very harsh trial, the nation has sought and found the strength to survive and to rise from its historical defeats precisely in the Cross of Christ! It has never been disappointed! The strength and wisdom of the Cross has been strong! Can that be forgotten?
“...Can one reject Christ and all that he has brought to human history? .. Certainly one can. Man is free. Man can say ‘no’ to Christ. But the basic question remains: is it licit to do this? In whose name is this licit? By virtue of what rational argument, what value close to one’s will and heart would it be possible to stand before oneself, one’s neighbor, one’s fellow citizens, one’s country, in order to cast off, to say ‘no’ to all that we have seen for 1,000 years? To all that has created and always constituted the basis of our identity?
Today, as Poland lays the foundations for its free and sovereign existence, after experiencing so many years of totalitarianism, these words must be recalled. In their light, 16 years later, a profound examination of conscience must be made: Where are we going? In what direction are consciences heading? What answer will Poland give to Christ?
Dear brothers and sisters, dear compatriots! At this great turning-point in our country’s history, as the future shape of our Republic is being decided, the Pope, your compatriot, tirelessly asks you to welcome anew, with faith and love, this legacy of Christ’s Cross. Once again, in a free and mature way, choose the Cross of Christ.... Accept responsibility for the presence of the Cross in the life of each and every one of you, in the life of your families and in the life of this great community which is Poland. Defend it! For the Apostle says: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor 4:7). ....
...And here, in our presence, at the end of this meditation, is the Christ of St. John’s Revelation, Christ the Good Shepherd and Christ the Lamb of God, who gave his life for his flock (cf. Rv 7:9-14). ...Amen.
Great post!
[...]
"..Let us recall the fact that atheism and the denial of the human person, his liberty and rights, are at the core of the Marxist theory. This theory, then, contains errors which directly threaten the truths of the faith regarding the eternal destiny of individual persons. Moreover, to attempt to integrate into theology an analysis whose criterion of interpretation depends on this atheistic conception is to involve oneself in terrible contradictions. What is more, this misunderstanding of the spiritual nature of the person leads to a total subordination of the person to the collectivity, and thus to the denial of the principles of a social and political life which is in keeping with human dignity. ...
[...]
"..We are facing, therefore, a real system, even if some hesitate to follow the logic to its conclusion. As such, this system is a perversion of the Christian message as God entrusted it to His Church. This message in its entirety finds itself then called into question by the "theologies of liberation."
[...]
"...As a result, participation in the class struggle is presented as a requirement of charity itself. The desire to love everyone here and now, despite his class, and to go out to meet him with the non-violent means of dialogue and persuasion, is denounced as counterproductive and opposed to love.
If one holds that a person should not be the object of hate, it is claimed nevertheless that, if he belongs to the objective class of the rich, he is primarily a class enemy to be fought. Thus the universality of love of neighbor and brotherhood become an eschatological principle, which will only have meaning for the "new man", who arises out of the victorious revolution. ...
[...]
"..But the "theologies of liberation", which reserve credit for restoring to a place of honor the great texts of the prophets and of the Gospel in defense of the poor, go on to a disastrous confusion between the poor of the Scripture and the proletariat of Marx.
In this way they pervert the Christian meaning of the poor, and they transform the fight for the rights of the poor into a class fight within the ideological perspective of the class struggle. For them the Church of the poor signifies the Church of the class which has become aware of the requirements of the revolutionary struggle as a step toward liberation and which celebrates this liberation in its liturgy. ...
[...]
"..The new hermeneutic inherent in the "theologies of liberation" leads to an essentially political re-reading of the Scriptures. Thus, a major importance is given to the Exodus event inasmuch as it is a liberation from political servitude. Likewise, a political reading of the "Magnificat" is proposed. The mistake here is not in bringing attention to a political dimension of the readings of Scripture, but in making of this one dimension the principal or exclusive component. This leads to a reductionist reading of the Bible.
Likewise, one places oneself within the perspective of a temporal messianism, which is one of the most radical of the expressions of secularization of the Kingdom of God and of its absorption into the immanence of human history.
In giving such priority to the political dimension, one is led to deny the radical newness of the New Testament and above all to misunderstand the person of Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man, and thus the specific character of the salvation he gave us, that is above all liberation from sin, which is the source of all evils. ..
[...]
"...Faith in the Incarnate Word, dead and risen for all men, and whom "God made Lord and Christ" is denied. In its place is substituted a figure of Jesus who is a kind of symbol who sums up in Himself the requirements of the struggle of the oppressed.
An exclusively political interpretation is thus given to the death of Christ. In this way, its value for salvation and the whole economy of redemption is denied. ...
[...]
"..For them, the struggle of the classes is the way to unity.
The Eucharist thus becomes the Eucharist of the class. At the same time, they deny the triumphant force of the love of God which has been given to us.
[...]
"...the source of injustice is in the hearts of men. Therefore it is only by making an appeal to the moral potential of the person and to the constant need for interior conversion, that social change will be brought about which will be truly in the service of man.
For it will only be in the measure that they collaborate freely in these necessary changes through their own initiative and in solidarity, that people, awakened to a sense of their responsibility, will grow in humanity.
The inversion of morality and structures is steeped in a materialist anthropology which is incompatible with the dignity of mankind.
[...]
".. the overthrow by means of revolutionary violence of structures which generate violence is not ipso facto the beginning of a just regime. A major fact of our time ought to evoke the reflection of all those who would sincerely work for the true liberation of their brothers: millions of our own contemporaries legitimately yearn to recover those basic freedoms of which they were deprived by totalitarian and atheistic regimes which came to power by violent and revolutionary means, precisely in the name of the liberation of the people.
This shame of our time cannot be ignored: while claiming to bring them freedom, these regimes keep whole nations in conditions of servitude which are unworthy of mankind. Those who, perhaps inadvertently, make themselves accomplices of similar enslavements betray the very poor they mean to help.
The class struggle as a road toward a classless society is a myth which slows reform and aggravates poverty and injustice.
Those who allow themselves to be caught up in fascination with this myth should reflect on the bitter examples history has to offer about where it leads.
They would then understand that we are not talking here about abandoning an effective means of struggle on behalf of the poor for an ideal which has no practical effects. On the contrary, we are talking about freeing oneself from a delusion in order to base oneself squarely on the Gospel and its power of realization. ...
[...]
~ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (nka Pope Benedict XVI) August 6, 1984
“Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes, not divine, but demonic.” ~ Pope Benedict XVI
“...After all, every normal person wants to help the poor and needy, but helping them at the end of a gun, as the left always want us to do, renders any spiritual benefit inoperative for both parties. .... What we hear from Obama is the eternal mantra of the socialists; America is broken, millions have no health care, families cannot afford necessities, the rich are evil, we are selfish, we are unhappy, unfulfilled, without hope, desperate, poverty stricken, morally desolate, corrupt and racist. This nihilism is the lifeblood of all the democrat candidates, even ‘hope you can believe in’ performers like Obama. When Michelle Obama claims she is only newly proud of her country, she does not exaggerate. In her world as in Obama’s, they believe we are a mess, a land filled with the ignorant and unenlightened, filled with despair” ..." (Fairchok).