Meeting with Representatives of Croatian Society

(May 04, 2011) Pope Benedict XVIth’s first engagement in Zagreb was the meeting with representatives of Croatian civil society and with the Diplomatic Corps, at the National theatre of Zagreb, at 6,15 on Saturday evening. Present at this encounter were representatives from other Churches and Christian communities, as well as from the Jewish and Muslim religions. The main theme of the Papal discourse was a reflection on the theme of conscience which was fundamental for a free and just society. And the recognition of the freedom of conscience, in the context of human rights was a valuable achievement of a free society. The Pope warned that if conscience were reduced to a subjective field devoid of religion and morality, it would create a crisis which would mean that Society would collapse on itself. Rather the quality of social and civil life and the quality of democracy depended in large measure on the way conscience is understood and the way it is informed. If, as it should be, conscience is rediscovered as the place in which to listen to truth and the good, the place of responsibility before God and before fellow human beings – in other words, the bulwark against all forms of tyranny – then there is hope for the future. This makes us see conscience as the keystone on which to base a culture and build up the common good.