Pope Benedict XVI Suggests a Redefinition of Liberty Is Needed

Posted by Kendall Harmon

The Pope affirmed this today in his French-language address to the new Canadian ambassador to the Holy See, Anne Leahy. He was speaking especially of excesses regarding life and family issues.

"A redefinition of the meaning of liberty" is needed, the Holy Father said, noting that it is more and more conceived as an "untouchable right of the individual" while the "importance of its divine origins and communitarian dimension" are ignored.

"According to this interpretation, an individual alone can decide and choose the physiognomy, characteristics and finality of life, death and marriage," he added. But, "true liberty is founded and developed ultimately in God. It is a gift that is possible to welcome as a seed and to make it mature responsibly so as to truly enrich the person and society."

Liberty has as a reference point "a universal natural moral law, which precedes and unites all rights and duties," the Pontiff affirmed.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Pope Benedict XVI

5 Comments
Posted October 30, 2008 at 3:39 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. justinmartyr wrote:

And the temporal arbiter of your freedom should be…?

By whom should this concept of freedom be redefined, the pope? our politicians? the people?

Crrrreeeeepy

October 30, 4:55 pm | [comment link]
2. driver8 wrote:

Well, who’s defining it now? What does Scripture say about freedom and what it is for?

October 30, 6:32 pm | [comment link]
3. justinmartyr wrote:

Scripture clearly teaches us that we are no ones slaves but Christ. That we must each willingly submit to God, and that no one can force us to do so (“Who are you to question another man’s servant?”). That we are to evangelize, not colonize. (“My kingdom is not of this earth.”) That we are ONLY to step in with physical force when you act as the willing agent of another (i.e., care for the orphans, the widows, the raped, the robbed, etc.)

I hope that you weren’t calling for some theocracy based on the pope’s ideas of freedom and rights? We’ve been there with the “Christian” Roman Empire, and it wasn’t pretty. Or Christian.

October 30, 7:11 pm | [comment link]
4. phil swain wrote:

Yeah, justinmartyr,  you should read the pope’s encyclical, “Deus est Caritas”, in which he sets out his plans for a theocracy.

October 31, 9:33 am | [comment link]
5. 13thMan wrote:

I hope for as long as I live to have the liberty to call the pope a fool; one who should keep a sock in it. The idea one man, elected by a few others after much scheming behind closed doors, can make pronouncements affecting millions of others leaves me cold. (At least US presidents can be voted out after 4 years. )

It is especially worrying because millions of people believe his nonsense. You can fool some of the people all of the time. And frighteningly many.

December 21, 3:35 pm | [comment link]
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