"Made public today was a Message written by the Holy Father for a meeting of bishops who head episcopal commissions for the family and life in Latin America and the Caribbean. Their meeting is taking place in Bogota, Colombia, from 28 March to 1 April under the presidency of Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family."Below are extracts of Pope Benedict's message, with my emphases. If the Catholic bishops' conference of England and Wales were minded actually to implement the Pope's message, there would be the following welcome changes:
- Oona Stannard and Greg Pope would be sacked from the Catholic Education Service (CES), and the CES either reformed radically or abolished
- the archdiocese of Westminster would drop its campaign to undermine parents at the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School
- the Masses for homosexual dissidents in Soho would cease forthwith*
- archbishops who promote so-called gay rights and bishops who undermine Humanae Vitae would be disciplined
- The Tablet, Progressio and other anti-life/anti-family organs would be ejected from official Catholic life
- the faithful would be exhorted to support pro-family campaigns such as SPUC's Safe at School.
"[T]he family is the value the people of those noble lands prize most highly. For this reason, the pastoral care of families has an important place in the evangelising activity of each one of the particular Churches, promoting a culture of life and working to ensure the rights of families are recognised and respected.* The late Pope John Paul II, the great pro-life champion, taught in paragraph 97 of his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection.
Nonetheless, we sorrowfully note that families are increasingly suffering from adverse situations brought about by rapid cultural changes and social instability, by migratory flows, by poverty, by education programmes which trivialise sexuality and by false ideologies. We cannot remain indifferent before such challenges.
[N]o effort is in vain if it helps to ensure that each family, founded on the indissoluble bond between a man and a woman, carries out its mission as a living cell of society, seedbed of virtues, school of constructive and peaceful coexistence, instrument of harmony and a privileged area in which, with joy and responsibility, human life is welcomed and protected, from beginning to natural end.
It is also worthwhile to encourage parents in their right - and their fundamental duty - to educate the new generations in faith and in the values that dignify human existence.
[T]he Church puts her trust in Christian families.
[H]elp the family to [be] unafraid to express the beauty of exalted ideals and the ethical and moral requirements of life in Christ.
[I]t is important to find ways to collaborate with all men and women of good will in order to continue to protect human life, marriage and the family throughout the region.
Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Join SPUC's Facebook group
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy
