Pope Calls Marriage "The Heritage of Humanity"

From Catholic News Agency:

Vatican City, Dec. 05, 2005 (CNA) - On Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI met with representatives of Latin American family and life groups, to whom he stressed the value of human life in the face of new ethical issues, and the need for faithfulness, and openness to life within marriage.

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Recalling the great interest of his predecessor, John Paul II, on the pastoral care of the family, Benedict said that "for my part, I share this same concern which to a large extent affects the future of the Church and of peoples."

"Your duty as pastors," he said, "is to present the extraordinary value of marriage in all its richness; as a natural institution, it is 'the heritage of humanity.'"

"At the same time," he added, "its elevation to the great dignity of Sacrament must be contemplated with gratitude and wonder, as I myself recently pointed out when I said that 'the value of Sacrament that marriage assumes in Christ means that the gift of creation was raised to the grace of redemption'."

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The Pope then went on to address a number of life-related issues, including embryonic stem cell research and abortion, noting that new attitudes are putting the fundamental right to life into question.

"The elimination of the embryo", he said, "is being facilitated, as is its use in the name of scientific progress which, in not recognizing its own limits and not accepting all the moral principles that enable the dignity of the person to be protected, becomes a threat to human beings themselves."

Benedict also noted that "in Latin America, as elsewhere, children have the right to be born and to grow up in the bosom of a family founded on marriage," and emphasized that children are an expression of the wealth of a family.

"For this reason," he said, "it is necessary to help everyone to realize the intrinsic evil of the crime of abortion which, in attacking human life at its beginnings, is also an act of aggression against society itself."

"Consequently," he pointed out, "politicians and lawmakers, as servants of the social good, have the duty to defend the fundamental right to life, the fruit of God's love."

(emphasis added)