Catholic World News - Vatican Update - 08/27/1999

Pope Stresses Defense of Marriage, Family Life

VATICAN - AUGUST 27, 1999 (CWNews.com) -- Speaking to a group of scholars on Friday, August 27, 1999, Pope John Paul II said that the Church faces an "urgent" task of upholding marriage and family life, in the face of a "secularized mentality" which fails to recognize the essential meaning of human sexuality.

The Pontiff met with about 120 teachers and researchers affiliated with the John Paul II Institute for the Study of Marriage and the Family. That Institute, a branch of the Pontifical Lateran University, was meeting this week near the papal summer residence at Castel Gandalfo. Since the Institute was created in 1981, the Pope argued, society has seen the rise of a new ideology, which opposes the natural anthropology based on the fundamental differences between men and women. This new ideology, he continued, is unalterably opposed to the model of family life based on an indissoluble marital bond between man and woman, which forms "the natural cell which is the basis for society."

Today, the Pope lamented, child-bearing is seen as a "private project," which can be accomplished by biological efforts completely divorced from conjugal sexuality. The human procreative capacity, he added, is seen only as "lesser biological gifts, which can be manipulated." But that approach results in a neglect of both the dignity of human sexuality and "the unique personal dignity of the child." In the natural family, the Holy Father explained, procreation is not merely a biological process but "collaboration with the divine Creator." The family, therefore, is a "sign of hope."

The Pope encouraged his listeners to foster a deeper understanding of "God's design for the person, for marriage, and for the family." That understanding, he said, should be based on theology, philosophy, and the human sciences-- all studied in the light of Christian revelation.

The John Paul Institute for the Study of Marriage and the Family has a central campus in Rome, with outposts in Washington, DC; Mexico City; and Valencia, Spain.