Such attitudes flourish, for example, in those schools and colleges where students are assisted to understand and value each other's culture. In New Zealand today we are not sure sometimes just how tolerant we should be of others' lifestyles and behaviour. In some cases the common good of society may require our forbearance of ways of living that as a Church we know to be wrong. However, tolerance is not giving way to that kind of moral indifference and false sense of personal freedom which loses sight of the difference between right and wrong. Likewise, it is not tolerance, but injustice and neglect, which allows growing numbers of our countrymen, women and children to live without the minimum resources needed for a decent life.
True tolerance demands respect for the dignity of others.
This applies in a special way to those who have no public voice to defend themselves. For this reason the Church will always speak out in defence of the human rights of the unborn, and the rights of the dying for adequate care and treatment as they approach the moment of their natural death. Abortion and euthanasia are threats to our society, which must be resisted. It is particularly apparent in our time that intolerance easily becomes the seedbed of strife and war within and between nations. However, the outlawing of apartheid and the institution of democracy in South Africa, the laying down of arms in Northern Ireland, and the easing of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians are hopeful signs that tolerance is increasingly being seen as a value in human relations.