Pope's Teachings

Pope's Teaching Helps Defend Endangered Family, Prelate Says

Vatican City - October 17, 2003 (CWNews.com)

Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo delivered a powerful indictment of efforts to undermine family life, as he made his presentation to an assembly of prelates gathered in Rome for the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II.

Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said that the Church must follow the leadership of Pope John Paul in defending the family against a "conspiracy" of hostile political forces.

By helping Christians to recognize a dramatic confrontation between the "culture of life" and the "culture of death," the Holy Father has outlined the essential conflict facing the world at the opening of the 21st century, the Colombian cardinal said. The central questions that must be faced, he said, are these: "Must man remain powerless, confronted with the tragedy of dehumanization? Should he set his face against a culture that, while it appears to exalt man, actually violates human dignity and treats man as an instrument and an object?"

Cardinal Lopez Trujillo painted a grim picture of the current political situation regarding family life. The family, he said, has come to be seen as "the negation of liberty, and the place of woman's enslavement." Parliamentary bodies, under pressure from special-interest groups, have invented dubious new "rights" that conflict with the role of the family.

Faced with these "efforts to dismantle the family structure, piece by piece," Pope John Paul has rallied a powerful opposing force, the cardinal said. The Pope's public statements have set up "a moral barrier of recognized authority" in defense of the family. And his teachings have helped to revive an understanding-- at least among Christians-- that "the health of the family, founded on marriage and fidelity, is the best response" to the "culture of death" and the best remedy for all major social problems.