In Bratislava, 1992, in the wake of the 1989 fall of the Soviet Union, Cardinal Ratzinger spoke of the dangers of anarchy and tyranny that might succeed a content-less democracy.
"[I]ndividual freedom presented...as the highest goal lacks contents, it dissolves into thin air, since individual freedom can exist only when freedoms are correctly ordered. Individual freedom needs measure, for otherwise it turns into violence directed against others. It is not by chance that those who aim at totalitarian rule begin by introducing an anarchic freedom for individuals and a situation in which each one's hand is raised against all the others: by introducing order into this situation, they are enabled to present themselves as the true saviors of mankind. Thus, freedom requires contents. We can define it as the safeguarding of human rights, but we can also describe it more broadly as the guarantee that things will go well both with society and with the individual: the one who is ruled, i.e., the one who has handed over power, 'can be free, when he recognizes himself, that is to say, his own good, in the common good which the rulers endeavor to bring about.' (H. Kuhn, Der Staat: Eine philsophische Darstellung [Munich, 1967], 60.)
"This reflection has introduced two further concepts alongside the idea of freedom: law and the good. There exists a certain tension between freedom as the existential form of democracy and the contents of freedom (i.e., law and the good), and contemporary struggles to discover the right form of democracy, and indeed of political life as a whole, are struggles to find the right balance in this tension... Truth is controversial, and the attempt to impose on all persons what one part of the citizenry holds to be true looks like the enslavement of people's consciences. The concept of 'truth' has in fact moved into the zone of antidemocratic intolerance...It is relativism that appears to be the real guarantee of freedom and especially of the very heart of human freedom, namely, freedom of religion and of conscience.
"We would all agree on this today. Yet, if we look more closely, we are surely obliged to ask: Must there not be a nonrelativistic kernel in democracy too? For is not democracy ultimately constructed around human rights that are inviolable? Does not democracy appear necessary precisely in order to guarantee and protect these rights? Human rights are not subject to any demand for pluralism and tolerance: on the contrary, they are the very substance of tolerance and freedom. Law and freedom can never mean robbing another person of his rights. And this means that a basic element of truth, namely, ethical truth, is indispensable to democracy."
In Joseph Ratzinger Values in a Time of Upheaval, San Francisco: Ignatius, 2006, 54-55.
"If the majority, as in the case of Pilate, is always right, then what truly is right must be trampled upon. For then the only thing that counts is the power of the one who is stronger and knows how to win the majority over to his own views." Ibid., 62.
"If the majority, as in the case of Pilate, is always right, then what truly is right must be trampled upon. For then the only thing that counts is the power of the one who is stronger and knows how to win the majority over to his own views." Ibid., 62.
These texts reminded me of the following historic speech of Pope Saint John Paul II which we Mount Saint Mary's seminarians heard over the radio on the bus ride back from the Baltimore Seminary as His Holiness departed the Baltimore Airport, regarding the natural law which is the foundation of true democracy: acknowledging, promoting and defending the inherent and inviolable dignity of each human person, guaranteed by God and by good government.
Baltimore-Washington International Airport (Baltimore, Maryland)
Sunday, 8 October 1995
Dear Mr Vice–President, Dear Friends, Dear People of America,
1. As I take leave of the United States, I wish to express my deep and abiding gratitude to many people.
To you, Mr. Vice–President, for graciously coming here to say goodbye. To the Bishops of the Dioceses I have visited and the many people, who have worked so hard to make this visit a success. To the public authorities, to the police and security personnel, who have ensured efficiency, good order and safety.
To the representatives of the various Churches and Ecclesial Communities, who have received me with great good will; to Americans of all races, colors and creeds, who have followed with interest and attention the events of these days; to the men and women of the communications media, who have labored diligently to bring the words and images of this visit to millions of people; and especially to all those who, personally present or from afar, have supported me with their prayers.
I express to the Catholic community of the United States my heartfelt thanks! In the words of Saint Paul: "I give thanks to my God every time I think of you – which is constantly in every prayer I utter" (Phil. 1:3).
2. I say this, too, to the United States of America: today, in our world as it is, many other nations and peoples look to you as the principal model and pattern for their own advancement in democracy. But democracy needs wisdom. Democracy needs virtue, if it is not to turn against everything that it is meant to defend and encourage. Democracy stands or falls with the truths and values which it embodies and promotes.
Democracy serves what is true and right when it safeguards the dignity of every human person, when it respects inviolable and inalienable human rights, when it makes the common good the end and criterion regulating all public and social life. But these values themselves must have an objective content. Otherwise they correspond only to the power of the majority, or the wishes of the most vocal. If an attitude of skepticism were to succeed in calling into question even the fundamental principles of the moral law, the democratic system itself would be shaken in its foundations (cf. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 70).
3. The United States possesses a safeguard, a great bulwark, against this happening. I speak of your founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. These documents are grounded in and embody unchanging principles of the natural law whose permanent truth and validity can be known by reason, for it is the law written by God in human hearts (cf. Rom. 2:25).
At the center of the moral vision of your founding documents is the recognition of the rights of the human person, and especially respect for the dignity and sanctity of human life in all conditions and at all stages of development. I say to you again, America, in the light of your own tradition: love life, cherish life, defend life, from conception to natural death.
4. At the end of your National Anthem, one finds these words: "Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust!’ ".
America: may your trust always be in God and in none other.
And then, "The star–spangled banner in triumph shall wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave".
Thank you, and God bless you all!
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