Veritatis splendor

He's setting freedom free, perfecting it in us.

In the great encyclical Veritatis Splendor, the splendor of truth, and when the, when the homilist gets to Veritatis Splendor, it really gets complicated, [laughs] right? So bear with me.

But it's this magnificent encyclical that addresses this whole challenge of modernity, really since the Garden of Eden.

But John Paul writes, "Man is no longer convinced that only in the truth can he find salvation.

We're trained academic philosophers.

Veritatis Splendor is where he talks at some length about consequentialism.

No, the right thing to do, if you're not a consequentialist, the way the Roman Catholic Church teaches Roman Catholics must live their lives non-consequentially, by virtue ethics alone, get the F. That's the right thing to do, if that's what you earned.

But if you're a consequentialist, you just say, cheat, get the F.

Those two guys were in charge of writing it, but it was JP2's catechism, and three and a half years after he promulgates it, you know, 440 years after...

the only other universal catechism which is inerrant, and says the death penalty is a great affirmation of virtue and of dignity and of obedience before the Fifth Commandment, it's sounding to say the opposite.

And then in 1997, it takes this consequentialist turn, which JP II himself widely repudiates in Veritatis Splendor.

And then Francis takes it farther from there, and now Leo seems to be picking up the ball and running with it.

It, it, we're an image of the truth 'cause we're in the image and likeness of God.

You know, in Veritatis Splendor, he has that beautiful quote where he says, "The splendor of truth shines forth in all the works of the Creator, and in a special way in man." Created in the image and likeness of God.

Well, that's gone out the, the window completely, right? I mean, look at this now, where we're letting even i- a child just decide what they are, what they want to be.

They identify as this.

Good luck being happy in that situation, right? The absolutizing of freedom is, is, is a scary, scary thing that's happening.

You know, and, and again, [laughs] this isn't new.

Pope John Paul was talking about this years ago and in his po- possibly one of the, the greatest things ever written, Veritatis Splendor, right? He says, "Certain currents of modern thought have gone so far as to exalt freedom to such an extent that it becomes an absolute, which would then be the source of values." And what he's saying is this, and this is...

Y- you're watching this happen.

John Paul II taught that true freedom is not licensed to do whatever you want, but a gift ordered toward truth and love.

In Veritatis Splendor, one of his encyclicals, it means the splendor of truth, he warned against a concept of freedom detached from moral truth.

Freedom is not a blank check, he said.

It's a responsibility to choose the good in accordance with the truth revealed by God.

This was a conversation happening in the 20th century in theological circles, and in fact it grew to such a fervor that St. John Paul II...

He, in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor, spent many paragraphs speaking to this very reality.

What many theologians presumed to say was to say that there is a fundamental option that every human has towards God.

And that fundamental option, in other ways, is this foundational orientation towards God.