"The Judge of the world, who
will come again to judge us all, stands there, dishonored and defenseless
before the earthly judge. Pilate is not utterly evil. He knows that the
condemned man is innocent, and he looks for a way to free him. But his heart is
divided. And in the end he lets his own position, his own self-interest,
prevail over what is right. Nor are the men who are shouting and demanding the
death of Jesus utterly evil. Many of them, on the day of Pentecost, will feel
“cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37), when Peter will say to them: “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested
to you by God... you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the
law” (Acts 2:22ff.). But at that moment they are caught up in the crowd. They
are shouting because everyone else is shouting, and they are shouting the same
thing that everyone else is shouting. And in this way, justice is trampled
underfoot by weakness, cowardice and fear of the diktat of the ruling mindset.
The quiet voice of conscience is drowned out by the cries of the crowd. Evil
draws its power from indecision and concern for what other people think."
(From The Way of the Cross,
Meditation for the First Station: Jesus is Condemned to death. Joseph Cardinal
Ratzinger for Pope John Paul II, 2005)
“I
believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus
Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and
buried: He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He
ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the
Holy Ghost. I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints. The
forgiveness of sins. The resurrection of the body. And the life everlasting.
Amen.”
Pope Paul VI encyclical Humane Vitae:
It is to be anticipated that
perhaps not everyone will easily accept this particular teaching. There is too
much clamorous outcry against the voice of the Church, and this is intensified
by modern means of communication. But it comes as no surprise to the Church
that she, no less than her divine Founder, is destined to be a “sign of
contradiction.” She does not, because of this, evade the duty imposed on her of
proclaiming humbly but firmly the entire moral law, both natural and evangelical.
Since the Church did not make either of these laws, she cannot be their
arbiter—only their guardian and interpreter. It could never be right for her to
declare lawful what is in fact unlawful, since that, by its very nature, is
always opposed to the true good of man. (H.V. # 18)
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