Excerpts from Pope John Paul II's Sunday homily:

``A modern state cannot make atheism or religion one of its political ordinances. The state, while distancing itself from all extremes of fanaticism or secularism, should encourage a harmonious social climate and a suitable legislation that enables every person and every religious confession to live their faith freely, to express that faith in the context of public life and to count on adequate resources and opportunities to bring its spiritual, moral and civil benefits to bear on the life of the nation.

``On the other hand, various places are witnessing the resurgence of a certain capitalist neoliberalism that subordinates the human person to blind market forces and conditions the development of peoples on those forces. . . . In the international community, we thus see a small number of countries growing exceedingly rich at the cost of the increasing impoverishment of a great number of other countries; as a result, the wealthy grow ever wealthier, while the poor grow ever poorer.''

``At stake here is man, the concrete human person. While times and situations may change, there are always people who need the voice of the church so that their difficulties, their suffering and their distress may be known. Those who find themselves in these situations can be certain that they will be not be betrayed, for the church is with them and the pope . . . will embrace all who suffer injustice.''

The liberation of the human race ``cannot be reduced to its social and political aspects, but rather reaches its fullness in the exercise of freedom of conscience, the basis and foundation of all other human rights.''

``For many of the political and economic systems operative today, the greatest challenge is still that of combining freedom and social justice, freedom and solidarity, so that no one is relegated to a position of inferiority.''