Zeale for America Rally: A Patriotic Celebration of Faith and Country
La Crosse Center
La Crosse, Wisconsin
June 13, 2026
THE NATURAL MORAL LAW: FOUNDATION OF THE LIFE OF THE NATION
Introduction
Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, we are full of gratitude for the wisdom and courage which inspired our God-fearing founding fathers to seek the freedom of democracy for the citizens of the nation. At the same time, we are deeply conscious of the fragility of democracy as a form of government inasmuch as it depends upon the education and formation of citizens in the knowledge and respect for the rule of law, upon which any stable form of government depends. The fragility of our democratic form of government, in fact, seems to be owed, in good part, to a profound confusion regarding the rule of law and its foundation upon the truth about man and the world he inhabits. The stability of democracy depends upon the education of citizens in the civic virtue which respects the rule of law for the good of all.
If democracy is “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” as Abraham Lincoln described the United States government during the time of the great struggle to eliminate the evil of slavery from the nation, it cannot be reduced to the rule of the majority.[1] While the rule of the majority can be qualified, according to a literal understanding, as government “by the people,” it may well not be government “of the people” and “for the people.” In other words, the majority of the people may lose respect for the rule of law in its essential relationship to the common good. Then, the majority aligns itself with partisan interests and supports laws which deny the recognition of fundamental rights to a certain class of people, for example, a law denying to the members of a certain class the right to life, because they are seen to be in the way of the pursuit of individual interests. Government, in that case, cannot be said to be “of the people” and “for the people.”
Conscious of the fragility of our democratic form of government, we gather to implore almighty God, through the intercession of the Virgin Mother of God, Mary Immaculate, Patroness of the United States of America, that He strengthen and increase our practice of patriotism in service of what is good and just. May our prayer today become a daily prayer, lifting our hearts, one with the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, seeking the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit for the citizens of our nation.
The Common Good
What is the common good? If democracy or any form of government is to serve a community or nation, society must recognize a certain order which permits the individual to pursue his own good, while, at the same time, respecting the good of others who form a community with him. The good is prior to any state or government. It is defined by the order found in the nature of persons and things, by which the same persons and things are directed to objective ends. In truth, the individual must understand that his own good cannot be served, while the good of others and the order of creation are violated. The individual cannot achieve his proper end and, therefore, happiness, apart from the respect of the proper end and ultimate happiness of his neighbor, and the proper end of the things with which he interacts. Otherwise, government is reduced to the tyranny of whatever group is able to prevail by winning the support of a majority.
Patriotism is not nationalism, that is, the worship of the nation as an end in itself. Patriotism is the respect and love of the nation which, after the family, the first cell of human society, is the irreplaceable servant of the common good.
Without the recognition of the common good, to which the individual good is essentially related and which it serves, society breaks down and a government is soon beset by the violence and destruction which is the inevitable fruit of unbridled individualism and self-pursuit. The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council described the common good precisely in the context of the formation of a political community:
Individuals, families, and the various groups which make up the civil community, are aware of their inability to achieve a truly human life by their own unaided efforts; they see the need of a wider community in which each one will make a specific contribution to an even broader implementation of the common good. For this reason, they set up various forms of political communities. The political community, then, exists for the common good: this is its full justification and meaning and the source of its specific and basic right to exist. The common good embraces the sum total of all those conditions of social life which enable individuals, families, and organizations to achieve complete and efficacious fulfillment.[2]
The English word, fulfillment, translates the original Latin word, perfectio, perfection. Fulfillment does not signify some self-defined condition but rather the perfection of the individual or group, according to man’s proper nature and end. In The Declaration of Independence, the objective fulfillment which the common good safeguards and promotes is described as “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”[3] The reality underlying the description of the common good in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, “On the Church in the Modern World,” of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and the description in The Declaration of Independence is the same.
The laws of a democratic nation, therefore, are to be ordered to the common good, which, one hopes, will coincide with the will of the majority, but which will, in any case, not only be laws “by the people” but also laws “of the people” and “for the people.” The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council also taught the necessary relationship of the legal and juridical order of a society with the common good and, therefore, the moral order:
It follows that political authority, either within the political community as such or through organizations representing the state, must be exercised within the limits of the moral order and directed toward the common good (understood in the dynamic sense of the term) according to the juridical order legitimately established or due to be established. Citizens, then, are bound in conscience to obey. Accordingly, the responsibility, the dignity, and the importance of those who govern is clear.[4]
The objectivity of the common good, as it is discovered in the natural order, determines the good order of a nation. Laws which safeguard the common good rest on the reality of the nature and end of the persons and of the things which they govern. It is essential that citizens be educated to understand the relationship between the political order and the common good, in order that they obey the laws. It is essential that lawmakers and servants of justice understand the meaning of law for the citizens as individuals and as a community.
Legal Realism
The realism of laws, their foundation upon the objective nature and end of things, has been, for some time, severely questioned or rejected in our nation, for example, some legal theorists use the term, “legal realism,” to reject directly the role of the objective common good in a just society. The philosophical underpinnings of the false theory of “legal realism”[5] correspond to a parallel development among certain Catholic moral theologians who follow a moral theory which is called consequentialism or proportionalism.
The moral theory in question judges the goodness of an act, according to an intended good consequence, even if the means of achieving the intended good is evil in itself. Both the legal theory and the moral theory are rooted in an instrumentalist view of the world.[6]The parallel development in moral theology has added to the confusion regarding the nature of the law and its service of the common good. Moral theory, distorted and betrayed by the consequentialist or proportionalist doctrine, is not in the position to carry out its native service of pointing to the truth about the law and, in fact, participates in the deadly confusion of a false “legal realism.”
Pope Saint John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Veritatis splendor, refuting the serious errors of consequentialism or proportionalism, noted the importance of sound moral teaching to the political order. He recalled the reason for the Church’s insistence upon the objective moral order, when he wrote:
The Church’s firmness in defending the universal and unchanging moral norms is not demeaning at all. Its only purpose is to serve man’s true freedom. Because there can be no freedom apart from or in opposition to the truth, the categorical – unyielding and uncompromising – defense of the absolutely essential demands of man’s personal dignity must be considered the way and the condition for the very existence of freedom.[7]
The recognition, in law, of an objective moral order is, therefore, necessary, if freedom is to be served. The Church’s clarity in teaching the moral truth and in refuting moral error is critical to the sound political order. The Church’s moral teaching forms the character of the citizens who are her faithful and also of other men of good will, who recognize the truth of her teaching, in accord with the common good. On the other hand, moralists whose theories do not correctly account for universal, unchanging moral norms undermine human freedom in the political order.
Pope Saint John Paul II went on to reflect upon the danger of “a totalitarian conception of the world,” which democracies in the West have deplored in governments of Marxist inspiration, while at the same time they deny “the fundamental rights of the human person” and absorb “the religious yearnings which arise in the heart of every human being” into politics.[8] He observes: “This is the risk of an alliance between democracy and ethical relativism, which would remove any sure moral reference from political and social life, and, on a deeper level, make the acknowledgment of truth impossible.”[9] Pope John Paul II then quotes a telling declaration from his Encyclical Letter Centesimus annus: “As history demonstrates, a democracy without [principles] easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.”[10]
The wisdom of Pope John Paul II’s caution is sadly verified in the legal system of a nation which places the foundations of the law upon the shifting sands of relativism. Pope John Paul II’s clarification of the moral truth to be taught in the Church and his correction of consequentialism and proportionalism are most timely also for the world of politics.
I note that the term, values, which is commonly used today in the discussion of the relationship between morality and law, can be problematic, for it comes from the economic world and the relative assessment of the worth of things. I prefer the word, goods or virtues or principles. In other words, values can change, according to human assessment, while goods or virtues or principles, inherent in the God-given nature and end of persons and things, endure.
The confusion and error to which Pope Saint John Paul II referred are not a mere theoretical matter. They influence the decisions of the highest courts of the United States of America. For example, the decision of the United States Supreme Court, in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, given on June 29, 1992, declared: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”[11]
The decision in question uncovers an understanding of the law which is totally divorced from any objective reality, any God-given order. According to the decision, the law and its application must respect the individual’s “concept” of the world and of human life. The declaration of the Court condones a form of individualism and pursuit of self-interest, which is truly totalitarian. It can only result in the tyranny of the predominant views of individuals and of their interests. It has, in fact, resulted in the wholesale death of the innocent and defenseless unborn in a political order founded on the principle enunciated in the Declaration of Independence that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”[12] It has also resulted in a redefinition of marriage and of the family, the first cell of society, to include relationships of persons of the same sex, which are contrary to the nature of man.
True Legal Realism
What makes the law truly realistic, that is, in conformity with the God-given nature of persons and things, and their proper ends? The perennial answer to this critical question for the future of democracy in the United States of America and elsewhere is the natural moral law. The natural law establishes the first and evident principles which guarantee the realism and, therefore, the justice of laws.
Law is more than the command of the sovereign or the will of the majority. It has its foundation in the unchanging truth about ourselves and our world, which is safeguarded by the natural moral law written by God in nature and upon every human heart. The natural moral law alone gives positive law the profound and stable foundation which it requires and which can truly bind individuals and communities. Only when positive law is founded upon natural moral law is it truly “realistic.” The late philosopher of law Wolfgang Waldstein has shown that knowledge of the law of nature or the natural law as the foundation of the legal order is evident in the earliest known legal documents. He concludes: “As far back as we have sources concerning legal problems we find the clear awareness of the fact that man finds himself in a legal order not produced by man himself, but being part of the creation of the world.”[13] Natural law expresses the objective order which can be, has been and is known by the use of human reason.
The natural law expresses the end to which our practical action must tend, if it is to be true and free. Saint Thomas Aquinas declared: “Hence this is the first precept of law, that good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided.”[14]
The good for man is that which most perfectly corresponds to his nature and finality. Saint Thomas Aquinas immediately derives other precepts from the first precept of the natural law. The first of these is “whatever is a means of preserving human life, and of warding off its obstacles, belongs to the natural law.”[15] The second precept has to do with the integrity of marriage and the family. The third precept has to do with man’s relationship with God, the practice of religion.[16]
The natural law presupposes that our consideration of particular practical actions or laws, for example, is based on the proper ends of persons and things, and not on individual purposes. It presupposes that man, because of his intellect and through the use of reason, can know the proper ends of persons and things, and respect them in the political order.Natural law, therefore, establishes positive law upon the principles of the good and freedom of man, and safeguards it against the tyranny of self-interest and of individual purposes.
It is important to distinguish between ends and purposes. Ends are inherent in the nature of things and are discoverable by human reason. The fact that they can be discovered by human reason does not change their objective reality. Purposes, on the other hand, are the fruit of our inclinations and desires which may or may not respect the objective order of the world.[17]
One of the principal goals of education is forming children and young people to understand what hinders them in distinguishing human purposes from objective ends. The analysis of the impediments to reason in knowing the natural law is also an indication of what is necessary in the upbringing and education of children and young people, if they are to be responsible citizens, responsible contributors to the political order. Sound education in the family and in the school will help them to understand the reason why legislation and applications of the law, which are based on the individual’s concept of reality, formed according to his purposes and desires, leads to violence and the destruction of human life and the world around us.
Often, the teaching on the natural law is rejected in our nation as the attempt of a religious confession to impose its confessional beliefs on the general population. The Church did not invent the notion of the natural law. The natural law proclaimed in the Sacred Scriptures is the expression of the order which God has written in nature and inscribed upon the “hearts of men,” as Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches us.[18]
The inscription of the natural law upon the heart of man means that man, by the use of reason, is meant to know the true ends of things and to act accordingly. The understanding of man’s capacity for truth is the inspiration of the moral and civic education of children and young people who, as a result of the education, will be freed from the slavery of their individual purposes and of “the way things are done” to serve their proper good and end, and the proper good and end of their fellow citizens and of the created order.
The teaching of the natural law in the Sacred Scriptures does not change the law as God has written it upon the human heart but invites the Christian to call upon the help of divine grace in knowing and respecting more fully God’s plan for us and our world. Christian faith inspires and strengthens the citizen to foster legislation and to interpret laws according to the proper nature and end of things, that is, in accord with the common good. Christian faith in no way disqualifies him from insisting that the political order and the laws which govern it be coherent with the natural moral law.
A true legal realism, an approach to the law which respects its service of the common good, builds its foundation on the natural moral law, in order that the making of law and the application of law may respect the truth about the persons and things governed by the law. Citizens, likewise, will rightly respect the rule of law, only when they recognize its foundation in the natural moral law.
Conclusion
We as Christians cannot fail to be concerned about the fragility of democracy. We cannot fail to be active in the rebuilding of the solid foundations of democracy, in the rebuilding of the respect for the rule of law.
On March 30, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI spoke to the members of the European Popular Party, addressing the role of the Church in the political order. He brought to mind the irreplaceable contribution of the Church to democracy in Europe, both historically and at present, through the formation of citizens in the Christian virtues. He cautioned that the elimination of Christians, as Christians, from the political order would result in the loss of the strength which the Christian faith and its practice bring to any nation or political body. He described the perennial service of the Church and of her teaching to the civic community. He stated: “It must not be forgotten that, when Churches or ecclesial communities intervene in public debate, expressing reservations or recalling various principles, this does not constitute a form of intolerance or an interference, since such interventions are aimed solely at enlightening consciences, enabling them to act freely and responsibly, according to the true demands of justice, even when this should conflict with situations of power and personal interest.”[19] His teaching applies equally to our nation, to every nation.
Pope Benedict XVI had already presented the same teaching, in a more solemn manner, in his Encyclical Letter Deus caritas est, in which he discusses the relationship of justice, politics and ethics. Regarding the Church’s involvement in the political order, he declared in Deus caritas est:
Faith enables reason to do its work more effectively and to see its proper object more clearly. This is where Catholic social teaching has its place: it has no intention of giving the Church power over the State. Even less is it an attempt to impose on those who do not share the faith ways of thinking and modes of conduct proper to faith. Its aim is simply to help purify reason and to contribute, here and now, to the acknowledgment and attainment of what is just.[20]
Pope Benedict XVI makes it clear that the Church’s social teaching “argues on the basis of reason and natural law, namely, on the basis of what is in accord with the nature of every human being.”[21]
In his address to the European politicians, Pope Benedict XVI declared that certain principles are “not negotiable,” if the inviolable dignity of every human life is to be respected. He enunciated three principles, in particular: 1) “protection of life in all its stages, from the first moment of conception until natural death”; 2) “recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family – as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage – and its defence from attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different forms of union, which in reality harm it and contribute to its destabilization, obscuring its particular character and its irreplaceable social role”; and 3) “the protection of the right of parents to educate their children.”[22] Certainly, the freedom of religion is also among the non-negotiable principles.
Pope Benedict XVI makes it clear that the principles which he has enunciated “are not truths of faith, even though they receive further light and confirmation from faith; they are inscribed in human nature itself and therefore they are common to all humanity.”[23] The Christian faith does not contradict human reason but gives it inspiration and strength in considering what is right and just, above all, in the political order.
There can be no question that democracy and the laws which govern it must be founded upon right reason, distinguishing ends from purposes, and respecting fully the natural law which God has written upon every human heart.
The Catholic Church, by her very nature, is the instrument by which Our Lord Jesus Christ, God-the-Son Incarnate, works for the salvation of the world. In the present situation, the Church’s service of the world demands of her, above all, a witness to the foundation of the political order upon the unchanging precepts of the natural moral law, which God has taught and teaches to all men and women of every place and time.
As we rejoice today in the Declaration of Independence and the truth and freedom for which it stands, let us pray that our nation may be always God-fearing, that is, faithful to its relationship with God and, therefore, obedient to His law written upon the human heart. Let this be our daily prayer for our nation.
Thank you for your kind attention. God bless you and your homes. God bless America.
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
1 Abraham Lincoln, “Address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,” 19 November 1863, in Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865 (New York: The Library of America, 1989), p. 536.
[2] “Homines, familiae et varii coetus, qui communitatem civilem constituunt, propriae insufficientiae ad vitam plene humanam instituendam conscii sunt et necessitatem amplioris communitatis percipiunt, in qua omnes, ad commune bonum semper melius procurandum, cotidie proprias vires conferant. Quapropter communitatem politicam secundum varias formas constituunt. Communitas ergo politica propter illud commune bonum exsistit, in quo suam plenam iustificationem et sensum obtinet, et ex quo ius suum primigenum et proprium depromit. Bonum vero commune summam complectitur earum vitae socialis condicionum, quibus homines, familiae et consociationes, suam ipsorum perfectionem plenius atque expeditius consequi possint.” Sacrosanctum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum II, “Constitutio Pastoralis de Ecclesia in mundo huius temporis, Gaudium et spes, 7 Decembris 1965, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 58 (1966), 1095-1096, n. 74. [Hereafter, GS]. English translation from: “Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, On the Church in the Modern World,” 7 December 1965, Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. Austin Flannery, O.P., Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1975, pp. 980-981, no. 74. [Hereafter, GSEng].
[3] The Declaration of Independence: Action of Second Continental Congress, 4 July 1776, in The Constitution of the United States with the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation (New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2002), p. 81.
[4] “Sequitur item auctoritatis politicae exercitium sive in communitate ut tali, sive in institutis rem publicam repraesentantibus, semper intra fines ordinis moralis ad effectum deducendum esse, ad commune bonum – et quidem dynamice conceptum – procurandum, secundum ordinem iuridicum legitime statutum vel statuendum. Tunc cives ad obedientiam praestandam ex conscientia obligantur. Exinde vero patet responsibilitas, dignitas et momentum eorum, qui praesunt.” GS, p. 1096, n. 74. English translation from: GSEng, p. 981, no. 74.
[5] Cf. Edward J. Richard, M.S., “Law and Morality: Taking a Theoretical Break from the Norm,” Studia Moralia, 35 (1997), 427-443; and 36 (1998), 239-265.
[6] Cf. Edward J. Richard, M.S., “Law and Morality: Taking a Theoretical Break from the Norm,” Studia Moralia, 36 (1998), 255.
[7] “Ecclesiae firmitudo in moralibus normis universalibus immutabilibusque tuendis nihil habet contumeliosi; verae hominis libertati solummodo inservit: quandoquidem praeter vel contra veritatem nulla libertas habetur, absoluta defensio, nimirum laxamentis et accomodationibus amotis, earum rerum, quas omnino necessarioque hominis personalis dignitas postulat, via est dicenda et condicio ipsius exsistentiae libertatis.” Ioannes Paulus PP. II, “Litterae Encyclicae Veritatis splendor, De quibusdam quaestionibus fundamentalibus doctrinae moralis Ecclesiae,” 6 Augusti 1993, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 85 (1993), 1209, n. 96. [Hereafter, VS]. English translation: Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis splendor, “Regarding Certain Fundamental Questions of the Church’s Moral Teaching,” 6 August 1993 (Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993), p. 116, no. 96. [Hereafter, VSEng].
[8] “Post lapsum multis in Nationibus doctrinarum, quae rationem civilem conectebant cum totalitaria mundi visione – in primis inter eas Marxiana doctrina – discrimen nunc emergit, non minus grave, ob repudiationem fundamentalium iurium personae humanae atque usurpationem ex parte rei publicae administratorum ipsius religiosae postulationis quae exsistit in corde cuiusvis hominis….” VS, 1212, n. 101. English translation: VSEng, p. 121, no. 101.
[9] “… est discrimen foederis inter democratiam et ethicum relativismum, qui convictum civilem privat quavis tuta morali ratione eum efficiendo omnino veritatis agnitione nudatum.” VS, 1212, n. 101. English translation: VSEng, p. 121, no. 101.
[10] “Populare tandem regimen principiis carens, in totalitarismum manifestum occultumve prompte vertitur, ut hominum annales commonstrant.” Ioannes Paulus PP. II, “Litterae Encyclicae Centesimus Annus , Saeculo ipso Encyclicis ab editis Litteris Rerum Novarum transacto, 1 Maii 1991, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 83 (1991), 850, n. 46. English translation: Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus annus, “On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum novarum,” 1 May 1991 (Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1991), pp. 70-71, no. 46.
[11] Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 852 (1992).
[12] The Declaration of Independence: Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776.
[13] Wolfgang Waldstein, “Natural law and the defence of life in Evangelium Vitae,” in Evangelium Vitae: Five Years of Confrontation with the Society, Proceedings of the Sixth Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life (Vatican City, 11-14 February 2000), ed. Juan de Dios Vial Correa and Elio Sgreccia (Vatican City State: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001), p. 225. Cf. Wolfgang Waldstein, “The capacity of the human mind to know natural law,” in The Nature and Dignity of the Human Person as the Foundation of the Right To Life: The Challenges of the Contemporary Cultural Context, Proceedings of the Eighth Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life (Vatican City, 25-27 February 2002), ed. Juan de Dios Vial Correa and Elio Sgreccia (Vatican City State: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2003), pp. 58-63.
[14] “Hoc est ergo primum praeceptum legis, quod bonum est faciendum et prosequendum, et malum vitandum.” Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, I-IIae, q. 94, art. 2. English translation: Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Prima Secundae, 71-114, tr. Fr. Laurence Shapcote, OP (Green Bay, WI/ Steubenville, OH: Aquinas Institute/Emmaus Academic, 2012), p. 229. [Hereafter, STEng].
[15] “… pertinet ad legem naturalem ea per quae vita hominis conservatur, et contrarium impeditur.” Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, I-IIae, q. 94, art. 2. English translation: STEng, p. 230.
[16] “… praecepta legis naturae hoc modo se habent ad rationem practicam, sicut principia prima demonstrationum se habit ad rationem speculativam: utraque enim sunt quaedam principia per se nota.” Summa theologiae, I-IIae, q. 94, art. 2. English translation: STEng, p. 229.
[17] Cf. Robert Sokolowski, “What Is Natural Law?: Human Purposes and Natural Ends,” in Christian Faith and Human Understanding: Studies on the Eucharist, Trinity, and the Human Person (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2006), pp. 215-220.
[18] “Sed lex scripta in cordibus hominum est lex naturalis.” Summa Theologiae, I-IIae, q. 94, art. 6. English translation: STEng, p. 235.
[19] Pope Benedict XVI, “Ad Congressum a «Populari Europae Factione» provectum,” Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 98 (2006), 344. [Hereafter, Ad Congressum].
[20] “Fides rationi tribuit quo melius compleat munus suum meliusque hoc quod proprium est sibi intueatur. Hic reponitur catholica doctrina socialis: quae non vult Ecclesiae potestatem inferre in Civitatem. Neque iis qui fidem non participant imponere cupit prospectus et se gerendi modos huius proprios. Simpliciter prodesse cupit ad rationem purificandam suumque adiumentum afferre ita ut quod iustum habetur, hic et nunc agnosci ac postea ad rem perduci possit.” Benedictus PP. XVI, Litterae Encyclicae Deus caritas est, De Christiano amore,” 25 Decembris 2005, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 98 (2006), 239, n. 28. [Hereafter, DC]. English translation: Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus caritas est, “On Christian Love,” 25 December 2005 (Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2006), p. 60. [Hereafter, DCEng].
[21] “… argumentatur initium sumens a ratione et a naturali iure, id est ab eo quod congruit naturae cuiusque personae humanae.” DC, 239, n. 28. English translation: DCEng, p. 60.
[22] Ad Congressum, 345.
[23] Ad Congressum, 345.