John Paul II on the test of America’s greatness

It is a hard one for a nation to pass

The first of two reflections for the Fourth of July on what the Declaration of Independence’s grand declarations require of us, most importantly what freedom means and in what kind of belief is it grounded.

Pope John Paul II served as pope from 1978 to 2005. He made these remarks in his address at the farewell ceremony when he left the United States at the end of his visit in 1987.

I am confident too that America will be ever more conscious of her responsibility for justice and peace in the world. As a nation that has received so much, she is called to continued generosity and service towards others.

As he leaves, he takes with him the memory “of a country that God has richly blessed from the beginning until now” and invokes the song “America the Beautiful.” America, he says,

Your greatest beauty and your richest blessing is found in the human person: in each man, woman and child, in every immigrant, in every native-born son and daughter.’

For this reason, America, your deepest identity and truest character as a nation is revealed in the position you take towards the human person. The ultimate test of your greatness in the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenceless ones.

The best traditions of your land presume respect for those who cannot defend themselves. If you want equal justice for all, and true freedom and lasting peace, then, America, defend life! All the great causes that are yours today will have meaning only to the extent that you guarantee the right to life and protect the human person:

• feeding the poor and welcoming refugees;
• reinforcing the social fabric of this nation;
• promoting the true advancement of women;
• securing the rights of minorities;
• pursuing disarmament, while guaranteeing legitimate defence;

all this will succeed only if respect for life and its protection by the law is granted to every human being from conception until natural death.

Every human person — no matter how vulnerable or helpless, no matter how young or how old, no matter how healthy, handicapped or sick, no matter how useful or productive for society — is a being of inestimable worth created in the image and likeness of God. This is the dignity of America, the reason she exists, the condition for her survival — yes, the ultimate test of her greatness: to respect every human person, especially the weakest and most defenceless.

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