Pope says society and public institutions need to rediscover their soul

In his annual New Year greetings to Rome’s Police department, Pope Benedict XVI called on civil and public leaders to rediscover their spiritual and moral roots. Reflecting on one of the greatest challenges in the current relativistic culture- the crisis of conscience – the Pope observed that there is "a sense of insecurity, primarily due to social and economic instability, but also exacerbated by a weakening of the perception of ethical principles that underpin the law and personal moral attitudes, which always give strength to the rules that govern society".

He noted “a reductionist view of conscience has developed in modern thought, according to which there are no objective reference points in determining what is true from what is not true, instead that it is the individual, with his or her insights and experiences, who is the measure thereof, and each person therefore has their own truth, their own moral code. The most obvious consequence is that religion and morality tend to be confined within the sphere of the subjective, the private: faith with its values and its behaviour, in short, is no longer entitled to a place in public or civil life. Therefore, if on the one hand, society attaches great importance to pluralism and tolerance, on the other, religion tends to be gradually marginalized and considered irrelevant and, in a sense, extraneous to the civilized world, as if it were to limit its influence on human life".

Pope Benedict concluded: “The new challenges that emerge on the horizon demand that God and man may once more meet, that society and public institutions rediscover their "soul ", their spiritual and moral roots, to give new substance to ethical values and legal references, and then practical action. The Christian faith and the Church can not cease to offer its own contribution to promoting the common good and an authentic human progress