Importance, richness and beauty of family life;

The most vulnerable: the young

Abraham Lincoln: Liberty

Martin Luther King, Jr.: Liberty and Plurality

Dorothy Day: Social Justice and the Rights of Persons

Thomas Merton: The capacity for dialogue and openness to God

“Money that is drenched in blood, innocent blood”

An important theme for him: Do not try to dominate space, but patiently initiate processes for the good

Long and powerful passage from Merton’s Autobiography–a “man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for the world and his Church–a man of dialogue and promoter of peace … between religions”

The Pope’s key theological virtue seems to me to be hope: “I am convinced we can make a difference.” This theme runs through just about everything I see from him. He writes passionately against “defeatism” in Evanglii Gaudium.

Goals: increase wealth and improve the world; creation of jobs as service to the common good; Common Good includes the earth that effects us all

He has beautifully organized this speech around four great Americans for the present. I should mention that at Seton Hall we read Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton in our University Core. And King is read in Freshman English I believe! Three out of four.

Rehabilitation view of crime and punishment; Bishops renewed call for abolition of death penalty.

Treat other with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated; seek for others the same possibilities we seek for ourselves; if we want security, let us give security, if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us give opportunities.

But there is an edge: we will be judged by the yardstick we use to measure.