Last rites declaration of Ioannes Paulus PP. II (Karol Wojtyla)
Ioannes Paulus PP. II
Nationalism, capitalism, and hoarding. The idea of every nation
should be forgot, price should be struck from the commons, and
princes should be seen for the devils they are. The sins include
our church, secret societies, and other religions which make of
the spirit of God a divide."
Last rites declaration of Ioannes Paulus PP. II (Karol Wojtyla)
2nd April 2005
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that there is no such law.
Theft, incest, infanticide, parricide, have all had a place among virtuous
actions. Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the
right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and
because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him?
Doubtless there are natural laws; but good reason once corrupted has
corrupted all. Nihil amplius nostrum est; quod nostrum dicimus, artis est.40
Ex senatus--consultis et plebiscitis crimina exercentur.[41] Ut olim vitiis,
sic nunc legibus laboramus.[42]
The result of this confusion is that one affirms the essence of justice to
be the authority of the legislator; another, the interest of the sovereign;
another, present custom, and this is the most sure. Nothing, according to
reason alone, is just itself; all changes with time. Custom creates the
whole of equity, for the simple reason that it is accepted. It is the
mystical foundation of its authority; whoever carries it back to first
principles destroys it. Nothing is so faulty as those laws which correct
faults. He who obeys them because they are just obeys a justice which is
imaginary and not the essence of law; it is quite self-contained, it is law
and nothing more. He who will examine its motive will find it so feeble and
so trifling that, if he be not accustomed to contemplate the wonders of
human imagination, he will marvel that one century has gained for it so much
pomp and reverence. The art of opposition and of revolution is to unsettle
established customs, sounding them even to their sourc