"Owing to the influence of cultural and ideological factors, today the civil and secular society is confused and bewildered: the original evidence of the foundations of the human being and his ethical action got lost, and the doctrine of the natural and moral law is opposed to other conceptions, directly denying it. All that causes enormous and serious consequences on the social and civil order". It is one of the central excerpts of the speech delivered by Benedict XVI in the Vatican this morning, while he received in hearing the participants in the annual Plenary Session of the International Theological Commission. The Pope went on by pointing out that "for many thinkers, today, a positivistic conception of the law seems to be dominating. According to them, mankind, or society, or actually the majority of citizens, become the final source of the civil law. Therefore, the current problem is not the search for good but the search for power, or rather for power balance". "The root of this tendency according to Benedict XVI – is ethical relativism, which for some people represents also one of the most important conditions for democracy, since relativism would guarantee tolerance and mutual respect of the people". (to be continued)
