On concluding his speech to the theologians meeting in the Vatican for the annual Plenary Session of the International Theological Commission, Benedict XVI said: "The natural law is thus the real guarantee offered to everyone for living free and respected in his dignity, defended from any ideological manipulation, and from any maltreatment and abuse of power by the strongest. Nobody may avoid this call". As a matter of fact, according to the Pope, "if by a tragic obscuration of the collective conscience, skepticism and ethical relativism managed to cancel the fundamental principles of the natural and moral law, the very democratic system would be radically wounded at its foundations". "Against this obscuration, which is a crisis of human civilization, even before than Christian civilization he added, – it is necessary to mobilize all the consciences of men of good will, either laymen or even belonging to religions other than Christianity. Together, and in an operational way, they should commit themselves to create the necessary conditions for full awareness of the inalienable value of the natural and moral law, in culture and in the civil and political society. The progress of individuals and society on the road to real advancement in conformity with the right reason, which is participation in the eternal Reason of God, actually depends on respect of that".
