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So let me start with John the 23rd.

So his encyclical in 1961 was called Mater et Magister, mother and teacher, that's the title

for the church. And he made a really important point. One of the things that people were thinking by the 1960s,

and I remember just being a little kid growing up,

and you even got some of this at school,

was now we've reached a scientific and technological age.

We've managed to solve so many problems.

Humanity has such a bright future,

and we can build this great civilization on our own.

We can build a civilization

without God. Religion is for primitive societies that are afraid of everything and don't understand

things and haven't mastered nature. But now, you know, with technological and scientific

advance, religion just isn't that important anymore. And John says, in fact, it's the opposite.

It's more important now because we've created

now things that could be engines of destruction. He was thinking in terms, I think, mostly of weapons,

but I would say the communications technology, things that we can't control, things that we need

some sort of moral, spiritual foundation and framework to be able to operate with. So in fact,

we need religion more in modern times than you did in the past. And then another point

he makes is that in the wealthier countries of the world, there's growing dissatisfaction. People

have more than they've ever had in history, and they're not happier. They're, in fact, growing more and more dissatisfied.

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