Posted on 02/11/2008 4:11:33 PM PST by wagglebee
ROME, February 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At a time in human history when people are radically re-thinking the meaning of the concepts of family and of the relations between men and women, Pope Benedict XVI has told women that the natural differences and complementarity of the sexes is the foundation of the dignity of women. He called upon the state to protect the natural rights of families in order to support the rights of children to be raised and educated by a mother and a father.
Speaking at the Congress on Women, sponsored by the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Laity, the pope said that Catholic anthropology differs profoundly from post-modern secularist ideas - notably feminism and the homosexual movement - that "attempt to eliminate, or at least to obfuscate and confuse, the sexual differences written into human nature, considering them to be cultural constructions."
On the contrary, he said, the questions surrounding the dignity of women are based in "fundamental anthropological truths of men and women", that recognize the "rooted and profound" and complementary "difference between the masculine and the feminine."
This disparity of opinion "constitutes a central point of the 'anthropological question' that is so decisive in contemporary culture."
Analysts have noted that the divide between the Catholic Church and the post-modern secular world on matters as widely dispersed as homosexuality, contraception and women's ordination, are based on this disparity of understanding on what it means, fundamentally, to be human and made male and female.
Benedict warned that by attempting to eliminate these natural differences in order to "pretend to be autonomous or totally self-sufficient," men and women "risk being closed up in a self-realization that considers the overcoming of every natural, social or religious bond as a conquest of freedom". This attempt, he said, far from creating freedom, "in fact reduces them to an oppressive solitude".
His comments reflect those of Mother Theresa who called loneliness "the leprosy of the West", which she said, "in many ways...is worse than our poor in Calcutta."
The pope spoke of the natural family as the "specific vocation", based on the inherent complementarity of man and woman, in which, "woman and man, thanks to the gift of maternity and paternity, together play an irreplaceable role in regard to life."
He reiterated the rights of the child as one of the central reasons for the Church's steadfast defence of the natural family: "From the moment of their conception, children have a right to count on a father and a mother who care for them and accompany them in their growth."
The state, he said, must safeguard the natural family and the "stability of matrimony," and the "rights and irreplaceable duty" of parents to educate their children "with adequate social policies".
A report issued by the Commission on Parenthood's Future, echoes the Pope's concerns. The Commission, an international group of scholars and leaders in the family issues, echoed the Pope's reiteration of the Church's teaching on the rights of children to be raised within natural marriage. The Commission examined what it called the "emerging clash between adult rights and the rights of children."
The Commission, associated with the Institute for American Values and the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, examined the changes in law in the US, Canada, Britain, New Zealand and Australia, as well as ongoing experiments into the artificial creation and manipulation of human life at the embryonic stage. The report said, "Nearly all of these steps, and many more, are being taken in the name of adult rights to form families they choose."
"But what about the children?"
The report cited the "large body of social science evidence showing that children, on average, do best when raised by their own married mother and father". It suggested that "in the global rush to redefine parenthood we need to call a time-out."
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Catholic Ping
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
That cant have gone over too well...
Glad to see one Church is still standing with the word of God.
As aften as EVERY Sunday, and several times in between. They also need to tell each member of government bodies, who claim membership/communion with them, that they must vote accordingly!
the Pope just isn’t politically correct. I thought that the whole concept of gender identity was a fluid situation. It goes beyond just homosexuality. The initials for the gay commuinity are LGBTQ, which stands for “lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered, and questioning”. And we are told that people’s sexuality is on a continuum. And that many people are “questioning”, and how else do they resolve their questioning except through experimentation?
Yep, this Pope just isn’t with it.
Worth repeating!
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The Pope isn’t interested in being politically correct. He is interested in being Biblically correct and having families with a sound foundation!
Amen!
The people love this Pope. He is with it.
The Catholic Church, who was tending astray to the left, is now coming back to the center and heading to the right.
We Catholics have much to be thankful for!
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Every time Pope Benedict speaks, I am more impressed and pleased. :-) What a wonderful man.
“At a time in human history when people are radically re-thinking the meaning of the concepts of family and of the relations between men and women......”
SOME people are.
But like many essentially Leftist causes, they are a very low percentage of the population at large.
The Pope isn’t interested in being politically correct. He is interested in being Biblically correct and having families with a sound foundation
__________________________________________
And that’s great
he’s a brave man...
Kudos to him
I love my German Shepherd! May he have a long life and papacy!
This needs to be reiterated any time a liberal mentions the word "children."
It took just one person, Margaret Marshall of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, to force gay marriage on the state. If you read her opinion, it is a radical rethinking of the concept of family.
“From the moment of their conception, children have a right to count on a father and a mother who care for them and accompany them in their growth.”
&&
Tell it, Holy Father!
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