The pope denounces civil unions
The Pontifical Institute John Paul II organized a congress on the theme "The Heritage of John Paul II on Marriage and the Family: Love human Love" from May 11 to May 13, 2006. Benedict XVI gave two addresses before 1200 participants.
The Pontifical Institute John Paul II for Studies on Marriage and the Family was founded on May 9, 1981, within the Lateran Pontifical University. Mgr Livio Melino was appointed president of the Institute on January 18 last so as to ensure that the Institute will henceforth be autonomous. He succeeded in this post to Mgr Rino Fisichella, Rector Magnificus of the Lateran University.
Benedict XVI in his first address recalled the meaning of human love. "Authentic love turns into a light which guides the whole life towards its plenitude, generating a society which is livable for man." "The communion of life and love, which marriage is, thus is established as an authentic good for society." "It is now a special priority to avoid confusion with other types of unions based on a fragile love", declared the Holy Father. For "only total and irrevocable love between a man and a woman is capable of guaranteeing the edification of a society which becomes a home for all men".
In his second address, Benedict XVI declared: "Politicians and lawgivers must "safeguard the rights of the family." The pope recalled that the Church had condemned the "setting up of juridical solutions for so called de-facto unions. These unions, while refusing the obligations of marriage, claim to obtain equivalent rights". "Thus, they want to give a new definition of marriage", he specified, "in order to make homosexual unions legal and grant them the right to adopt children".
"The family based on marriage constitutes a "patrimony of mankind". It is a basic social institution, it is the life cell and the backbone of society, and this for believers as well as for unbelievers", affirmed the sovereign pontiff. "All the States must hold it in the highest esteem."
"In this society which has made so many equivocal concessions about man, liberty, human love, we must never yield to discouragement when it comes to stating the truth concerning the institution of the family", exhorted the Holy Father. We deplore "the growing number of separations and divorces which break family unity and create numerous problems for the children, the innocent victims of such situations". "The stability of the family is suffering much nowadays. To safeguard it, we must often go counter to the predominant culture and this requires patience, efforts, sacrifices, and a continual search for mutual understanding".
Benedict XVI also demanded "respect for the human embryo, which should always be born from an act of love and treated as a person". The scientific and technical progress in bioethics "turn into threats when man loses the sense of his own limits and claims to take God’s place", he denounced.
"The historical period in which we are living, demands that Christian families bear testimony courageously and consistently to the fact that procreation is the fruit of love." This will contribute to "stimulate" lawgivers, and to fight against the "demographic winter" and the aging of the population, concluded Benedict XVI.
