Pope Benedict's speech to the German Parliament

Courtesy of Sandro Magister, here is a link to Pope Benedict's speech to the German Parliament. The speech focuses on the foundations of law. Benedict's emphasis is on reason (properly understood) and the necessity of striving for justice. Here is a key paragraph near the conclusion of the speech--

"The culture of Europe arose from the encounter bewteen Jerusalem, Athens and Rome--from the encounter between Israel's monotheism, the philosophical reason of the Greeks and Roman law. This three-way encounter has shaped the inner identity of Europe. In the awareness of man's responsibility before God and in the acknowledgment of the inviolable dignity of every single human person, it has established criteria of law: it is these criteria that we are called to defend at this moment in our history."

Richard M.