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withdrawn from God's dominion''.14 It means working to enrich American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