Friday, January 20, 2006

Truth - Foundation of Peace

From Archbishop Burke's weekly column:
"In Truth, Peace" is the theme of this year’s message, the first message of Pope Benedict XVI, for the World Day of Peace.

Truth is a fundamental requirement for the promotion of peace. Lying, the opposite of truth, fosters confusion, disorder, violence and death...Our sins are all, at root, a form of lying, deceiving ourselves and others about what is good and right. We are often most clever at deceiving ourselves, talking ourselves into doing what we know is wrong. We can become so clever that we actually begin to believe our own self-deceptions and the lies we tell to others.

One of the greatest challenges of the new evangelization — of living our Catholic faith with the enthusiasm and energy of the first disciples — is restoring the respect for the truth. Our secularized society teaches us to use language which is pleasing to ourselves and others while covering our eyes from the truth. It teaches us to say whatever will advance our own interests without respect for objective reality.
Some examples of society's deceptions (lies):
1. Abortion (the willful murder of the innocent unborn) = a woman's choice
2. Embryo-destructive stem-cell research = life-saving cures
3. Cloning of of human embryos to destroy for stem cells = somatic nuclear cell transfer
New evangelization and the annual March for Life The annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., which will take place this year on Jan. 23, is an outstanding form of the new evangelization, of giving witness to the truth about the inviolable dignity of innocent human life.
Archbishop Burke's complete article is here.

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