“You will hear people tell you that your religious practices are hopelessly out of date, that they hamper your style and your future, that with everything that social and scientific progress has to offer, you will be able to organize your own lives and that God has played out his role. Even many religious persons adopt such attitudes, breathing the practical atheism that is at their origin.

“A society that, in this way, has lost it’s higher religious and moral principles will become an easy prey for manipulation and for domination by the forces, which, under the pretext of greater freedom, will enslave it ever more. Christ has the answers to your questions and the key to history; he has the power to uplift hearts.

“Without heeding the call of Jesus, it’s not possible to realize the fullness of your humanity. He keeps calling you. He keeps inviting you. Yes, Christ calls you, but he calls you in truth. His call is demanding, because he invites you to let yourselves be “captured” by him completely, so that your whole lives will be seen in a different light. He is the friend who said to his disciples, “No longer do I call you servants . . . but I have called you friends” (Jn 15:15). And he proved his friendship by laying down his life for you.” ~Bl. John Paul II, Galway, Ireland, 1979