Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Posted on 06/07/2006 6:11:40 AM PDT by NYer
The Vatican today published a sweeping condemnation of contraception, abortion, in-vitro fertilisation and same-sex marriage, declaring that the traditional family has never been so threatened.
The document was issued by the Pontifical Council for the Family, whose head, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, is a strong opponent of the use of condoms under any circumstances.
Gay activists in Italy condemned the report as a grotesque attack against modern life, freedom and social redemption.
The 57-page document does not break any new ground but summarised traditional Vatican positions.
"Man of modern times has radicalised the tendency to take the place of God and substitute him," it states. "Never before in history has human procreation, and therefore the family, which is its natural place, been so threatened as in today’s culture."
It makes no mention of the debate within the Catholic church on whether condoms could be used in the fight against Aids, in particular to protect the wife of a man who has the virus. It reaffirms the 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, that stated the Vatican’s opposition to contraception.
The document also condemns IVF treatment, artificial insemination and the use of embryos. "If a man takes on the power to fabricate man, he also takes on the power to destroy him," it says.
"The human being has the right to be generated, not produced, to come to life not in virtue of an artificial process but of a human act in the full sense of the term: the union between a man and a woman."
There was controversy when Cardinal Trujillo asserted three years ago that condoms do not prevent Aids and may help spread it because they create a false sense of security. The Vatican insists sexual abstinence is the only sure way to fight Aids.
Several other cardinals have argued that the use of a condom within a marriage would be the lesser of two evils if it prevents passing on HIV infection to the partner.
The document made a broad attack on what it said were threats to the "the natural institution of marriage".
"Couples made up of homosexuals claim similar rights to those reserved to husband and wife; they even claim the right to adoption. Women who live a lesbian union claim similar rights, demanding laws which give them access to hetero fertilisation or embryo implantation.
"Moreover, it is claimed that the help of the law to form these unusual couples goes hand in hand with the help to divorce and repudiate," the document said.
"Abortion and infanticide show the absence of efficient juridical protection for the conceived. Such practices in fact constitute a violation of the fundamental right to life which is the right of every human being from the moment of conception," it said.
Franco Grillini, a deputy in the Italian Parliament and honorary president of the activist group Arcigay, condemned the Vatican document as "grotesque," and said that other European countries that give legal recognition to unmarried and gay couples have done so with great benefit to society.
"To maintain, therefore ... that this would represent an attack against the traditional family is a falsehood that has been scientifically contradicted by the facts," said Signor Grillini.
Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Agree or disagree the Vatican takes the long view and is consistent.
The document obviously struck a chord. These folks are foaming at the mouth.
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Not Catholics, they are ill-equipped to criticize.
geez. you mean that the worship of God isn't done by a popularity contest???
who'd athunk?
Condoms???
Good grief!
Love the language here "unusual couples." I could think of a thousand other words to call these perverts, but for the Vatican this is pretty good.
But they can use the rhythm method to help prevent unwanted pregnancy?
It's call being realistic. One method works much better.
If the Pope wanted to be consistent he would declare that no Christian should seek medical attention from a doctor for anything, they should just pray to God for whatever ails them, since to do anything else would be like playing God.
Your reasoning above is flawed. The issue isn't about "wasting semen" (contrary to the famous Monty Python song). It's about proper use of the sexual act. Sex does bring the married couple closer together, but at the same time, the couple are acting as one reproductive principle.
The fertility treatments may be similar to getting medical attention in terms of technology, but it isn't the same. One improves/saves lives. But you don't have to produce offspring in order to improve/save lives.
When you read news reports on Catholic subjects, keep a few things in mind:
The Church teachings have a really splendid internal consistency. They are "inconsistent" only with some widespread but mistaken assumptions, some of which I addressed above.
Does this help? A little?
We were assured that the Vatican was wrestling with the whole issue of condom use for married couples when one partner has AIDS and that in fact a draught document had given the green light to this.
Apparently not.
The usual shrill whiners are up in arms, so without having read the document, I know already that it is right on the money.
Not to worry, boys. When Islam takes over, sharia is imposed and the Catholic Church is forced underground, Vatican statements like this will be nothing more than a fond and distant memory.
Didn't the article just state that is was considered wrong to use a condom? Am I missing something?
Frankly, I hope that you are right.
What should be objectionable is out of wedlock sex.
Yeah, like the rapid rise in illegitimacy in every place where gay marriage is encouraged. The traditional family is being dissolved. That's Ok to the socialists, who want nothing to compete with the individual's loyalty to the government.
Unusual = Queer.
Depends on who is using either method. The condom works only if it is uses according to instructions, and for most people the instruction put a responsibility on the user that is too much for them to bear. It was, after all, a devise developed for prostitutes, and prostitues generall don't think of sex as a religious act, as did so many flower children. The number of abortions attests to the "efficency" of condoms used by amateurs.
But they can use the rhythm method to help prevent unwanted pregnancy?
The cycle of fertility is a natural occurrence (read: not imposed by man, but ordained by God who is the author of life).
A condom is a synthetic obstruction (read: man tells God when He can and can't create life).
In a nutshell that's the difference. God doesn't need man to create new life. He made Adam out of dust. Our participation in the creative process is a GIFT and a distinct privelege that not even the angels are provided. By interposing our will against the ordained process of nature, we are basically giving God the finger and telling Him to mind His own business. Using the rhythm method is totally acceptable because it does nothing to circumvent a natural process that already exists. And even during the rhythm method, couples need to remain open to the generation of life.
Then the Pope on the one hand declares that life is so precious that even a drop of semen shouldn't be wasted... and on the other, a happily married Christian couple can't seek medical help to compensate for their fertility problems that prevent them from participating in the creation of life?
By giving man the right to produce life by artificial intervention, he has also inevitably been given the power to create-and-freeze living embryos (read: human beings) and based the dignity of a human being within a mechanical process instead of the natural process. The progression of artificial insemination has led to the commoditization of human life. As Thomas Aquinas might say, it's just plain "disordered", and anything that is used in a way it's not naturally ordered to act is an evil (read: homosexual relations, interruptis coitis, test tube fertilization, vasectomies, etc.) If the Pope wanted to be consistent he would declare that no Christian should seek medical attention from a doctor for anything, they should just pray to God for whatever ails them, since to do anything else would be like playing God.
Assuming the sole responsibility of producing life without regard for God's ordination of the natural process is playing God; taking Tylenol for a headache is proper self-respect. There's never anything morally wrong with seeking medical attention to cure a failing biological process (Jesus cured countless people), but in such cases, the medicine is being introduced to the body. In vitro fertilization removes the elements from the body, manipulates them, then reintroduces them after the process of reproduction has already taken place. The fertilization is a mechanical process, not a natural one, and that's an evil.
I hope this helps. As someone who is childless due to infertility, I come to the table as someone who benefit greatly from IVF, however, the Church is correct in its condemnation of artificial insemination.
Should read: "As someone who COULD benefit greatly from IVF..."
Yes, it's wrong to use a condom. Where did I say anything different?
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