POPE: TRUE DEMOCRACY IS NOT "TRUTH" BY MAJORITY VOTE

Friday February 25, 2000

POPE: TRUE DEMOCRACY IS NOT "TRUTH" BY MAJORITY VOTE

VATICAN, Feb 25 (LSN.ca) - Pope John Paul II addressed the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences Wednesday who are meeting on the theme "Democracy - Reality and Responsibility."

The pope denounced the view that "truth is determined by the majority and varies in accordance with passing cultural and political trends." He noted that these trends are currently so entrenched in popular thought that "those who are convinced that certain truths are absolute and immutable are considered unreasonable and unreliable."

"As Christians we firmly believe that 'if there is no ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity, then ideas and convictions can be easily manipulated for reasons of power," he said. John Paul warned that "a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism." "The value of a democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes."

See the Vatican Information Service report at:
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=47105

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/feb/00022501.html

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