Global quest for Tranquillity and Order

Delegates from around the world are currently attending the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences that is reflecting on the main themes and proposals of Pope John XXIII's encyclical Pacem In Terris nearly 50 years after its publication. Among the delegates is Lord David Alton, a leading Catholic peer at Britain's House of Lords, who addressed the gathering on the theme of "Truth, Justice, Charity and Liberty in the Globalised World."

Alton says Pacem in Terris was "an extrordinary document about human rights" that was shaped by Pope John's experiences such as "the personal interractions he had with the victims of the Nazi Holocaust ... or with victims of the Armenian genocide."

Asked what he believes are the greatest threats to tranquillity and order in today's world, Alton singled out the issues of "the subjectivity" we have today and "the relativism that demands I can have my truth and you can have yours." He says such attitudes "can reduce many issues just to a matter of choice rather than to an absolute, such as for example, the 6th Commandment, Thou Shalt not Kill" which should not be open to negotiations or amendments.

Turning to the question of how politics is practised nowadays, Alton says that "we've seen a lot of alienation in public and political life, not least in the UK where people have become disassociated from the political process. He says the challenge is how "to reclaim that ground."

Listen to the full interview by Susy Hodges with Lord David Alton: