Corinne "Lindy" Boggs presented her credentials to Pope John Paul II shortly before Christmas as the new U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. Mrs. Boggs, who served nine terms as congresswoman from Louisiana, is in many ways the last of a breed of politician we used to have a lot of before radical feminism became dogma in the Democratic party. She is a pro-life Democrat, but that didn't prevent the pope from taking the unusual step of using her presentation as an occasion for a lecture on the meaning of her own country's history. His words are worth quoting:
"The Founding Fathers of the United States asserted their claim to freedom and independence on the basis of certain 'self-evident' truths about the human person: truths which could be discerned in human nature, built into it by 'nature's God.' Thus they meant to bring into being, not just an independent territory, but a great experiment in what George Washington called 'ordered liberty.'. . . Reading the founding documents of the United States, one has to be impressed by the concept of freedom they enshrine: a freedom designed to enable people to fulfill their duties and responsibilities towards the family and towards the common good of the community. Their authors clearly understood that there could be no true freedom without moral responsibility and accountability, and no happiness without respect and support for the natural units or groupings through which people exist, develop, and seek the higher purposes of life in concert with others. . . .
"No expression of society's commitment to liberty and justice for all can be more basic than the protection afforded to those in society who are most vulnerable. . . . The moral history of your country is the story of your people's efforts to widen the circle of inclusion in society, so that all Americans might enjoy the protection of law, participate in the responsibilities of citizenship, and have the opportunity to make a contribution to the common good. Whenever a certain category of people -- the unborn or the sick and old -- are excluded from that protection, a deadly anarchy subverts the original understanding of justice. The credibility of the United States will depend more and more on its promotion of a genuine culture of life, and on a renewed commitment to building a world in which the weakest and most vulnerable are welcomed and protected."
In the annals of diplomatic history, a lecture on the meaning of America's democratic founding from the papal throne must rank as one of the stranger chapters. But it s even stranger that Americans should need it.