The Dissolution Of Democracy
By DONALD DeMARCO The fall of Communism presaged, for many, a new era of democracy in which people themselves would choose how their government would operate. It was widely held that governmental leadership would be determined no longer from without but now from within. In his encyclical Centesimus Annus (1991), however, John Paul II warned that in many cases “agnosticism and skeptical relativism are the philosophy and the basic attitude which correspond to democratic forms of political life.” He challenged those who saw democracy as a way of determining what truth is through the majority. The Holy Father warned that if “there is no ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity, then ideas and convictions can easily be manipulated…Continue Reading