“What characteri-zes man as man is not that he asks about the “can” but about the “should” and that he opens himself to the voice and demands of truth. It seems to me that this was the final meaning of the Socra-tic search and it is the profoundest element in the witness of all martyrs. They attest to the fact that man’s capacity for truth is a limit on all power and a guarantee of man’s likeness to God. It is precisely in this way that the martyrs are the great witnesses of con-science, of that capa-bility given to man to perceive the “should” beyond the “can” and thereby render possible real progress, real ascent.”

Cardinal J. Ratzinger, Conscience and Truth. The 10th Workshop for Bishops February 1991 Dallas, Texas