Pope urges Czechs to regain values that inspired fight for freedom

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PRAGUE, Czech Republic –– Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the peaceful revolt that brought down the country’s Communist regime, Pope Benedict XVI urged people in the Czech Republic to rediscover the spiritual and moral values that sustained their struggle for freedom.

In gatherings Sept. 26-28 with political, social, cultural and religious leaders as well as the Catholic faithful, the pope delivered a message of hope meant to inspire both the country’s majority of nonbelievers and the minority Catholic community.

Central to his message was that no society, no matter how democratic, could ever maintain a healthy and ethical sense of freedom without guidance from the truth found in God and the wisdom of faith.

The pope’s trip to Prague, Brno, and Stara Boleslav was his 13th trip abroad and his seventh to Europe.

“True freedom presupposes the search for truth –– for the true good –– and hence finds its fulfillment precisely in knowing and doing what is right and just,” the pope said during a meeting Sept. 26 with diplomats and political, civil, religious and cultural leaders in Prague’s presidential palace.