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Values in a Time of Upheaval QUOTES

Values in a Time of Upheaval QUOTES

1 " Although politics does not bring about the kingdom of God, it must be concerned for the right kingdom of human beings, that is, it must create the preconditions for peace at home and abroad and for a rule of law that will permit everyone to “lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way” (1 Tim. 2:2). "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

2 " Science can serve humanity, but it can also become an instrument of evil. Indeed, it is science that has the potential to make evil truly terrible. It is only when scientific work is sustained by ethical responsibility that it is able to be what it is meant to be. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

3 " A culture and a nation that cuts itself off from the great ethical and religious forces of its own history commits suicide. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

4 " It is not the task of the state to create mankind’s happiness, nor is it the task of the state to create new men. It is not the task of the state to change the world into a paradise—nor can it do so. If it tries, it abandons its own boundaries and posits itself as something absolute. It behaves as if it were God, and, as the Revelation of John shows, this makes it the beast from the abyss, the power of the Antichrist. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

5 " The father of this other view of political activity is Plato, who assumes that only one who himself knows and has experienced the good is capable of ruling well. All sovereignty must be service, i.e., a conscious act whereby one renounces the contemplative height that one has attained and the freedom that this height brings. The act of governing must be a voluntary return into the dark “cave” in which men live. It is only in this way that genuine governance comes about. Anything else is a mere scuffling with illusions in a realm of shadows—and that is in fact what most of political activity is. Plato detects the blindness of average politicians in their fight for power “as if that were a great good. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

6 " When conscience falls silent and we do nothing to resist it, the consequence is the dehumanization of the world and a deadly danger. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

7 " I would say that in people’s general consciousness today, there are three dominant values that are presented in a mythical one-sidedness that puts moral reason at risk. These three are progress, science, and freedom. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

8 " In many cases, perhaps in virtually all cases, a majority decision is the “most rational” way to achieve common solutions. But the majority cannot be an ultimate principle, since there are values that no majority is entitled to annul. It can never be right to kill innocent persons, and no power can make this legitimate. Here too, what is ultimately at stake is the defense of reason. Reason—that is, moral reason—is above the majority. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

9 " The use of power to regulate and serve the law is the opposite pole of a power that knows no law or that flouts the law—and that is a power we call “violence. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

10 " The fields of death before which we stand admonish us to remember death and to lead our life aright in the face of eternity. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

11 " only reconciliation creates peace. It is not violence that heals, but only justice. This must be the criterion of all political action in present-day conflicts. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

12 " The essential character of these two positions can be seen very clearly in the trial of Jesus, when Pilate asks the Savior: “What is truth?” (John 18:38). One very prominent representative of the strictly relativistic position, the Austrian professor of jurisprudence Hans Kelsen, who later emigrated to America, has published a meditation on this biblical text in which he sets out his view with unmistakable clarity.3 We shall return below to Kelsen’s political philosophy; let us first see how he expounds the biblical text. Kelsen sees Pilate’s question as an expression of the skepticism that a politician must possess. In this sense, the question is already an answer: truth is unattainable. And we see that this is indeed how Pilate thinks from the fact that he does not even wait for an answer from Jesus but turns immediately to address the crowd. He leaves it to the people to decide the disputed question by means of their vote. Kelsen holds that Pilate acts here as a perfect democrat: since he himself does not know what is just, he leaves it to the majority to decide. In this way, the Austrian scholar portrays Pilate as the emblematic figure of a relativistic and skeptical democracy that is based not on values and truth but on correct procedures. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

13 " It seems therefore that we have a conflict between two antithetical models, morality of conscience and morality of authority. The freedom of the Christian is safeguarded by the primal proposition of the moral tradition, that the conscience is the highest norm and that one must follow it even against authority. When authority—in this case the Church’s magisterium—speaks on matters of morality, it supplies material that helps the conscience form its own judgment, but ultimately it is only conscience that has the last word. Some authors express this ultimately decisive authority of conscience by saying that conscience is infallible.1 "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

14 " One colleague suggested the thesis that, if it were generally true that an erring conscience could lead to salvation, then even the SS troops under Hitler would have been justified and would now be in heaven, since they had committed their evil deeds out of fanatical conviction and without the least disturbance to their consciences. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

15 " the loss of the ability to see one’s guilt, the falling silent of conscience in so many areas, is a more dangerous illness of the soul than guilt that is recognized as guilt. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

16 " Jesus cannot work effectively among the righteous because they sense no need for forgiveness and repentance; their conscience no longer accuses them but only justifies them. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

17 " Politics is the realm of reason—not of a merely technological, calculating reason, but of moral reason, since the goal of the state, and hence the ultimate goal of all politics, has a moral nature, namely, peace and justice. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

18 " Conscience means the abolition of mere subjectivity when man’s intimate sphere is touched by the truth that comes from God. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

19 " The state is not itself the source of truth and morality. It cannot produce truth from its own self by means of an ideology based on people or race or class or some other entity. Nor can it produce truth via the majority. The state is not absolute. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval

20 " A man of conscience is one who never purchases comfort, well-being, success, public prestige, or approval by prevalent opinion if the price is the renunciation of truth. "

― Benedict XVI , Values in a Time of Upheaval