"What is truth?" It's fitting, maybe, that it is a political official like Pilate that speaks these words in the Gospel. Though even Pilate--good Roman that he was--would have recognized that the state, even one as mighty as the Roman Empire, couldn't pretend to offer an answer.
How far we've come, and not in the right direction. In this final installment in our look at Politics, Fr. Hugh and Fr. Ambrose emphasize just how critical it is that we recognize the role of Revelation and Reason in the social order. Truth comes from God and from Natural Law--that is, our use of reason to interpret the created order in which God has placed us. The state can do much to affirm truth. But it is a grave danger when the state pretends to serve as the source of truth, or that truth is a relative matter of individual preference.
The proper, Catholic notion of truth lends great insight into the value of laws, the freedom of religion, and, indeed, our own responsibility to bear witness to the Gospel--even in a society that rejects it.
This is the fifth and final video in a five part series on Catholic Political Thought. Learn more and see other episodes here.
