Editing Relativism (section)

===== Benedict XVI =====
In April 2005, in his homily during Mass prior to the conclave which would elect him as [[Pope]], then [[Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger]] talked about the world "moving towards a dictatorship of relativism":

:How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves – thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created and what [[Saint Paul]] says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error (cf [[Ephesians]] 4, 14). Having a clear Faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas, relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and "swept along by every wind of teaching", looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards. We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires. However, we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. Being an "Adult" means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today's fashions or the latest novelties. A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with [[Christ]] is adult and mature. It is this friendship which opens us up to all that is good and gives us the knowledge to judge true from false, and deceit from truth.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mass "Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice": Homily of Card. Joseph Ratzinger<!-- Bot generated title --> |url=https://www.vatican.va/gpII/documents/homily-pro-eligendo-pontifice_20050418_en.html}}</ref>

On June 6, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI told educators:

:Today, a particularly insidious obstacle to the task of education is the massive presence in our society and culture of that relativism which, recognizing nothing as definitive, leaves as the ultimate criterion only the self with its desires. And under the semblance of freedom it becomes a prison for each one, for it separates people from one another, locking each person into his or her own 'ego'.<ref>{{cite web |title=Inaugural Address at the Ecclesial Diocesan Convention of Rome<!-- Bot generated title --> |url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2005/june/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20050606_convegno-famiglia_en.html}}</ref>

Then during the [[World Youth Day 2005|World Youth Day]] in August 2005, he also traced to relativism the problems produced by the communist and sexual revolutions, and provided a counter-counter argument.<ref>{{cite web |title=20th World Youth Day - Cologne - Marienfeld, Youth Vigil<!-- Bot generated title --> |url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2005/august/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20050820_vigil-wyd_en.html}}</ref>

:In the last century we experienced revolutions with a common programme–expecting nothing more from God, they assumed total responsibility for the cause of the world in order to change it. And this, as we saw, meant that a human and partial point of view was always taken as an absolute guiding principle. Absolutizing what is not absolute but relative is called totalitarianism. It does not liberate man, but takes away his dignity and enslaves him. It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the Guarantor of our freedom, the Guarantor of what is really good and true.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}