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Chapter 32. Eighth Commandment: Tell the Truth • 435
TRUTH AND THE OP-ED PAGE
The more our culture has moved away from acceptance of objective
truth, the more it has moved toward the culture of opinions. Each
day, newspapers give us a diet of opinions on their op-ed page. Talk
shows on television have turned the sharing of opinions into a national
pastime. Editors and talk show hosts strive to give us a range of opin-
ions that stretch from one end of the spectrum to another. At the high
end of these presentations, experts and scholars are recruited to offer us
their best current research. At another level, people are simply enlisted
to share their thoughts and feelings publicly on any number of social,
moral, and political matters. Sometimes debate degenerates into expres-
sions of hatred.
Though the intuition remains that there is really such a thing as
objective truth, it tends to be lost in a marathon of inconclusive discus-
sions. As a result, some spend valuable time sharing only feelings or
Lying is linked to the tragedy of sin and its perverse con-
sequences, which have had, and continue to have, devas-
tating effects on the lives of individuals and nations. We
need but think of the events of the past century, when
aberrant ideological and political systems willfully twisted
the truth and brought about the exploitation and murder
of an appalling number of men and women, wiping out
entire families and communities. After experiences like
these, how can we fail to be seriously concerned about
lies in our own time, lies which are the framework for
menacing scenarios of death in many parts of the world.
Any authentic search for peace must begin with the
realization that the problem of truth and untruth is the
concern of every man and woman; it is decisive for the
peaceful future of our planet. (Benedict XVI, “Message for
World Day of Peace,” January 1, 2006)