Truth cannot be forced

Re Asuncion David Maramba’s “Toast to conscience” (Inquirer, 12/28/12).

Thank you for another blow in defense of conscience.

“Dignitatis Humanae” also teaches that “… all human beings are bound to search for the truth, especially with regard to God and His Church, and as they come to know it they are bound to adhere to the truth and pay homage to it.”  Pope John Paul II, in “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” states in the chapter “What is the Use of Believing,” that human freedom must be taken very seriously.

Man cannot be forced to accept the truth. He can be drawn toward the truth only by his own nature, that is, by his own freedom, which commits him to search sincerely for the truth and, when he finds it, to adhere to it both in his convictions and in his behavior. (“Crossing the Threshold of Hope”)

His Holiness further states that this has always been the teaching of the Church … and is reflected in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas and John Cardinal Newman! Amen.—POCH ROBLES, [email protected]