MORAL TRUTH AND FREEDOM

"GENUINE LIBERATION AND TRUE HAPPINESS"

Obedience to God's commandments, far from alienating us from our humanity, is the pathway to genuine liberation and true happiness.

"FREEDOM-AS-AUTONOMY"

Freedom-as-autonomy, by its single-minded focus on the autonomous will of the individual as the sole organizing principle of public life, dissolves the bonds of obligation between men and women, parents and children, the strong and the weak, majorities and minorities.

"A POWERFUL CULTURAL FORCE"

The notion of freedom as personal autonomy is superficially attractive; endorsed by intellectuals, the media, legislatures and the courts, it becomes a powerful cultural force. Yet it ultimately destroys the personal good of individuals and the common good of society.

CHOOSE WISELY

The nobility of men and women lies, not simply in the capacity to choose, but in the capacity to choose wisely and to live according to that choice of what is good.

"FREEDOM IN THE TRUTH"

Freedom of conscience is never freedom from the truth but always and only freedom in the truth.

THE TRUTH WILL MAKE YOU FREE

The Church's teaching of moral truth "brings to light the truths which [conscience] ought already to possess" (Veritatis splendor, n. 64) and it is these truths which make us free in the deepest meaning of human freedom and give our humanity its genuine nobility.

DON'T BANISH GOD FROM PUBLIC LIFE

American Catholics...have a responsibility to ensure that the mystery of God and the truth about humanity that is revealed in the mystery of God are not banished from public life.

OUR SURVIVAL

A society or culture which wishes to survive cannot declare the spiritual dimension of the human person to be irrelevant to public life.

"INCOMPATIBLE WITH DEMOCRACY"

A climate of moral relativism is incompatible with democracy.

(Source: Ad limina visit of bishops from Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, June 27, 1998)