I'm not talking about listening to them, I'm talking about hearing them. And I'm also talking about hearing what God has to say to us, for He speaks to us in Sacred Scripture, He speaks to us through others, and He speaks to us in a special way in His Church. That's where His word is proclaimed every day. Pope John Paul II is a media personality. Whenever he goes anywhere it is a media event.
Crowds love the spectacle.
John Paul II continually reiterates what the Church has been teaching from its beginning and throughout it's 2,000 years of history. And here I want to list what I think are some of its most important teachings. Human rights are endowed upon us by God, not granted to us by human government. The authors of our own Declaration of Independence believed that our nation should be God centered, that we are as human beings endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. Thomas Jefferson went on to write a statement appearing in the Northwest Ordinance and that is etched in stone on the front portico of Angell Hall, the old main classroom building at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.