Recover Natural-Law Reasoning, Pope Urges Scholars

From Catholic World News:

Rome, Feb. 13, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI spoke on February 12 to the participants in an international symposium on natural law, organized by the Pontifical Lateran University.

In his address-- which was made public by the Vatican press office a day later-- the Holy Father renewed his critique of scientific rationalism. Although technology has provided with enormous benefits, he said, an intellectual approach based exclusively on science has create dangerous problems.

The first problem, the Pope said, is the threat to the environment, “menacing the destruction of nature.” But an even greater threat, he continued, lies in the fact that “the method that enables us to have an ever greater understanding of the rational structures of matter, makes us ever less capable of seeing the source of this rationality: creative reason."

To counteract these threats, the Pontiff continued, the world must rediscover the principles of natural law. These principles, he said, include "the principle of respect for human life from conception to natural end," and "the duty to seek the truth, a necessary supposition for all authentic human maturation." The natural law also points to the need for human freedom, for justice, and for solidarity.

The fundamental point, the Pope said, is that the natural law is not the product of human legislation. The principles of natural law, he said, are “norms that precede any human law and as such they cannot be repealed by anyone." The understanding of these laws, written into human nature, promotes the maturity of one’s conscience.