Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale300

confidence in Christ's victory and a commitment to extending his reign. It

means not losing heart in the face of resistance, adversity and scandal. It

means overcoming every separation between faith and life, and countering

false gospels of freedom and happiness. It also means rejecting a false dichot-

omy between faith and political life, since, as the Second Vatican Council put

it, ''there is no human activity - even in secular affairs - which can be

withdrawn from God's dominion''.14 It means working to enrich American

society and culture with the beauty and truth of the Gospel, and never losing

sight of that great hope which gives meaning and value to all the other hopes

which inspire our lives.

And this, dear friends, is the particular challenge which the Successor of

Saint Peter sets before you today. As ''a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a

holy nation'', follow faithfully in the footsteps of those who have gone before

you! Hasten the coming of God's Kingdom in this land! Past generations

have left you an impressive legacy. In our day too, the Catholic community

in this nation has been outstanding in its prophetic witness in the defense of

life, in the education of the young, in care for the poor, the sick and the

stranger in your midst. On these solid foundations, the future of the Church

in America must even now begin to rise!

Yesterday, not far from here, I was moved by the joy, the hope and the

generous love of Christ which I saw on the faces of the many young people

assembled in Dunwoodie. They are the Church's future, and they deserve all

the prayer and support that you can give them. And so I wish to close by

adding a special word of encouragement to them. My dear young friends, like

the seven men, ''filled with the Spirit and wisdom'' whom the Apostles

charged with care for the young Church, may you step forward and take

up the responsibility which your faith in Christ sets before you! May you

find the courage to proclaim Christ, ''the same, yesterday, and today and for

ever'' and the unchanging truths which have their foundation in him.15 These

are the truths that set us free! They are the truths which alone can guarantee

respect for the inalienable dignity and rights of each man, woman and child

in our world - including the most defenseless of all human beings, the un-

born child in the mother's womb. In a world where, as Pope John Paul II,

14 Lumen Gentium, 36. 15 Cf. Gaudium et Spes, 10; Heb 13:8.