I commend Pope Benedict XVI for condemning communism and for illustrating, during his visit to the Czech Republic, how such systems, which chase power and deny God, are bound to collapse. The Pope’s warning has special relevance for the world’s democratic governments which are increasingly becoming socialist in nature. Under the guise of freedom they seek to impose on society a culture of death that includes homosexuality, same-sex marriage, embryonic stem-cell research, cloning, euthanasia and abortion.

The increasing tendency of Canada, the US and European nations to repudiate their Christian roots is not, as some think, the expression of some morally superior tolerance for other cultures, but rather the authorisation of an absolute way of thinking and living that is radically opposed to the variety of cultures – cultures which, in the end, are dogmatically relativised.

Communist-socialist governments falsely present themselves as the authentic spokesmen for the aspirations of the people. Under such systems, every affirmation of faith or of theology is subordinated to a political criterion.

In truth, atheism and the denial of the human person, his liberty and rights, are at the core of Marxist belief which requires a total subordination of the person to the collective. Communism ultimately subsumes the autonomous nature of all spheres of existence: religious, ethical, institutional and cultural.

In a democracy, however, it is the State that conforms to the society it serves – not the other way round. Alternatively you end up with dictatorship and totalitarianism.

Paul Kokoski

London, Ontario

Canada