Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 637

objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding

from the content of revelation. According to this understanding, the role of

religion in political debate is not so much to supply these norms, as if they

could not be known by non-believers - still less to propose concrete political

solutions, which would lie altogether outside the competence of religion -

but rather to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the

discovery of objective moral principles. This "corrective" role of religion vis-

à-vis reason is not always welcomed, though, partly because distorted forms

of religion, such as sectarianism and fundamentalism, can be seen to create

serious social problems themselves. And in their turn, these distortions of

religion arise when insufficient attention is given to the purifying and struc-

turing role of reason within religion. It is a two-way process. Without the

corrective supplied by religion, though, reason too can fall prey to distor-

tions, as when it is manipulated by ideology, or applied in a partial way that

fails to take full account of the dignity of the human person. Such misuse of

reason, after all, was what gave rise to the slave trade in the first place and to

many other social evils, not least the totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth

century. This is why I would suggest that the world of reason and the world

of faith - the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief -

need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and

ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civilization.

Religion, in other words, is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a

vital contributor to the national conversation. In this light, I cannot but

voice my concern at the increasing marginalization of religion, particularly

of Christianity, that is taking place in some quarters, even in nations which

place a great emphasis on tolerance. There are those who would advocate

that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely

private sphere. There are those who argue that the public celebration of

festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief

that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none. And there are

those who argue - paradoxically with the intention of eliminating discrimi-

nation - that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act

against their conscience. These are worrying signs of a failure to appreciate

not only the rights of believers to freedom of conscience and freedom of

religion, but also the legitimate role of religion in the public square. I would

invite all of you, therefore, within your respective spheres of influence, to