Pope Benedict XVI on Respect for Life

"[The Pope] must not proclaim his own ideas, but rather constantly bind himself and the Church to obedience to God's Word, in the face of every attempt to adapt it or water it down, and every form of opportunism. Pope John Paul II did this when, in front of all attempts, apparently benevolent to the human person, and in the face of erroneous interpretations of freedom, he unequivocally stressed the inviolability of the human being and of human life from the moment of conception until natural death. The freedom to kill is not true freedom, but a tyranny that reduces the human being to slavery."

--from the homily of Pope Benedict XVI at the Mass of Possession of the Chair of the Bishop of Rome, Basilica of St. John Lateran, Saturday, May 7, 2005.