Leadership Quote by Sargent Shriver

Shriver’s line reads like a moral job description, and that’s the point: it converts faith from private consolation into public obligation. “Precisely our job” borrows the language of bureaucracy and duty, not mysticism. Coming from a politician who built programs meant to meet people where they are, it signals an ethos that treats clarity as a form of service. Truth isn’t framed as a weapon or a brand; it’s framed as work.

The subtext is aimed at two temptations Catholics in public life routinely face: retreating into pious vagueness, or speaking in coded ways that keep everyone comfortable. Shriver rejects both. “Plainly and precisely” is a double demand. Plain speech resists clerical fog and political spin; precise speech resists the lazy certainty that comes with slogans. He’s insisting that moral conviction doesn’t excuse imprecision. If you claim “truth,” you owe people the labor of making it intelligible, specific, and testable in the real world.

Context matters: midcentury American Catholicism was negotiating its public legitimacy, and Catholic politicians were often expected either to downplay doctrine or to be suspected of it. Shriver’s formulation threads that needle. He doesn’t say “impose” or “win.” He says “speak,” implying persuasion, accountability, and a respect for the listener. It’s an attempt to fuse conscience with democratic etiquette: tell the truth, but do it in language that can survive daylight, debate, and consequences.