RECOGNIZE RELIGION’S ROLE, POLITICIANS URGED

VATICAN, Nov. 28, 00 (CWNews.com) -- The Vatican’s top foreign-policy official, speaking to his European counterparts, has insisted that religious liberty must be seen “in its own right,” rather than “in the context of minority rights, or in denunciations of fanaticism.”

Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran was speaking on Monday to the foreign ministers of the countries belonging to the Organization for European Security and Cooperation (OSCE). The archbishop observed that the 55 countries belonging to that group are “united by a common patrimony, in which religious convictions play an integral role.”

Religion, Archbishop Tauran argued, should be recognized as “a source of inspiration that calls man to rise above himself and to listen to God, to listen to others, to discover the truth that is in everyone, so that together they may build a world where we can live well.” In short religion plays a crucial role in building society, he argued. He decried the tendency to regard religious beliefs as secondary considerations, subordinate to other political forces.

"But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the need of redeeming and preserving grace; too proud to pray to the God that made us!" – Abraham Lincoln

Directives from Heaven:

#134 - U.S. GOVERNMENT LEADERS