Passive Voice

Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle

The speaker wants to emphasize the receiver

The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of
peace.

Yet, every so often, the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.

Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered.

They (the challenges) will not be met easily or in a short span of time.

It (greatness) must be earned.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.

Imagination is joined to common purpose.

a retirement that is dignified.

We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this
Earth

The capital was abandoned.

The snow was stained with blood.

Let it be told to the future world...

The speaker try to be tactful or evasive

Our economy is badly weakened.

Making general statments
And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account, to
spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day.

The agent is obvious from the context
From the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born

why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served in
a local restaurant