Remarks at the Annual
Dinner of the Knights of
Your Eminences, Your Excellency, Your Most Eminent
Highness, President Peter Grace, and ladies and gentlemen, tonight for me is a
moment from humility: to stand here before you, the members of the most ancient
order of its kind in the world, formed in the
Today,
as for nine centuries, you, the Knights and Dames of Malta, serve the victims
of poverty, hunger, and disease. I have often noted that in America we have a
tradition that began when the first community of settlers joined together to
help build a home for a newcomer: the tradition of neighbor helping neighbor,
the tradition of the barn-raising and the settlement house and the church-run
hospital, the tradition that Tocqueville spoke of in wonderment more than a
century and a half ago when he observed that when there was a job to do
Americans didn't wait for the government but pitched in and did it for
themselves. Well, yes, an American tradition, but one more ancient and
universal as well, of which history offers few examples more crystalline and
enduring than the Knights of Malta.
Now,
if I may tell you a story. You don't find this spirit of love and mercy
everywhere -- which makes you appreciate it all the more when you do find it.
When I was still fairly new in my former line of work, the movie business, I
was cast to play opposite Errol Flynn in a picture called ``The Santa Fe
Trail.'' The movie was really about John Brown, the abolitionist who led the
famous raid on Harper's Ferry. Raymond Massey played John Brown, and he gave
his character that perfect touch of insanity. Mike Curtiz
directed, and I've always thought the studio picked the perfect man to direct a
film about a madman. [Laughter]
To
give you an idea of what I mean, we had reached the end of the picture, the
scene in which they hang John Brown, when Mike flew into one of his rages. He
was furious. He'd just discovered he couldn't actually hang Massey -- [laughter]
-- and he'd have to use a dummy instead. [Laughter] Well, then he started
moving around the actor who was playing the minister who stood by Brown on the
scaffolding. He was setting up the shop -- or the shot, looking through the
camera viewfinder and motioning to the actor to move about -- first left, then
right, finally back. And the poor fellow took one step too far back, fell 12
feet from the scaffold, and broke his leg. [Laughter] Mike walked across,
looked down where he lay on the ground, turned to his assistant, and said,
``Get me another minister.'' [Laughter] If only I could treat Congress that
way. [Laughter]
But
to return to faith, hope, and love, your work with the ill, in particular,
those with leprosy, now those with AIDS; your partnership with Americans [Americares] and its president, Bob Macauley,
to move medicine to those in need all over the world; your support of Mother
Teresa's care for the poorest of the poor; your work feeding the hungry in
Latin America -- these are some of the highest examples of love, compassion,
and mercy in our time. They show the power of faith moving in the modern world.
I've
heard a lot about this being the era of greed, usually from those who really
mean that taxes are too low and government is too small. I wish these critics
would explain how it is that in the past 8 years, during this supposed era of
greed, charitable giving has risen to record highs in our nation -- last year,
in cash alone, $94.7 billion. And not too long ago, we found it's even higher
than we thought. No one, it turned out, had ever fully added up what Americans
give to their neighbors in need through their churches, synagogues, and other
religious organizations. Some of this was because of the difficulty of
gathering the information, but I expect that it may also have reflected a
secularist bias.
Whenever
we've talked about the immensity of American giving, critics have been quick to
retort, well, that much of it is through church congregations and that not much
of that goes to the poor and the hungry. Now, a private organization called
Independent Sector has added up what
By
the way, I suspect that a dollar that comes from our churches and synagogues
goes farther to help those in need than one that comes from the Government. And
I don't mean just because the Government's overhead is higher. No, it's that
the state's power is, at its root, the power to coerce, for example, to demand
taxes. The power of the church is the power of love. And that makes all the
difference.
Why
is it that in this city which spends so much on its social service bureaucracy
so many young people find their refuge and salvation
in Father Ritter's Covenant House? Could it be that there in the priests and
nuns and volunteers they see the face of love entering their lives for the
first time? They aren't a case to be handled, which they would be if they were
in the hands of the government agencies, but a soul to be cherished.
Twenty
years ago the Government declared a war on poverty. Poverty won. Too many poor
people were sucked into a system that declared that the only sin is not to have
enough money. Soon, too many became dependent on government payments and lost
the moral strength that has always given the poor the determination to climb
Now,
I know that when the Knights talk of the power of love and of serving ``the
least of these thy brethren'' you also mean -- as I do -- protecting the
unborn. Our critics call themselves prochoice. But
have they ever stopped to think that the unborn never have a choice? When Roe
versus Wade goes -- as I have faith it must -- the way of Dred
Scott and ``separate but equal'', a new debate will rise in the statehouses of
our land. And the voice that I believe must be heard and, in the end, shall be
heard over all the others is the voice of life. The
Knights can be part of that voice. Can I count on you? [Applause]
In
just 7 days I will lay down the mantle of this great office the American people
have bestowed upon me. I won't leave the battle. As long as there is breath in
me, I will fight for the principles in which I believe. But if I may, in this
moment of leaving office, make two special requests of you: The first is that
you prepare now to be part of the voice of life in the great debate ahead, and
the second, that you help
I
believe now, as I alway have, that
Thank
you, and God bless you.
Note: The President
spoke at