What Pope Benedict *actually* said
With thanks to John H.
Since faith in the Creator is an essential part of the Christian Credo, the Church can not and should not be confined to convey to its faithful only the message of salvation. It has a responsibility for creation and must rely on this responsibility even in public. And it must defend not only the land, water and air as gifts of creation as belonging to all. It must also protect humans against the destruction of itself. It is necessary that there is something like an ecology of man, understood in the right direction. It is not a metaphysical exaggeration, if the Church speaks of the nature of human beings as man and woman and asks that this order of creation is respected. Here it is done by faith in the Creator, given the language of creation, which would be self-contempt and then destruction of the work of God.
What often is expressed and understood by the term “gender”, is resolved ultimately in the creation of self-empowerment and the Creator. The man wants to be alone and always and exclusively alone what concerns him. But living in this way against the truth, lives against the Creator Spirit. The tropical forests deserve, yes, our security, but no less worthy man as a creature, which is writing a message that does not mean contradiction of our freedom, but his condition.
Great theologians of the Schools have qualified marriage, which is the bond for life between man and woman, as the sacrament of creation, that the Creator has established and that Christ – without changing the message of creation – then welcomed in the history of salvation as the sacrament of the new alliance. Sits on the announcement that the Church must bear witness in favor of the Creator Spirit in nature as a whole and especially in the nature of man, created in the image of God. From this perspective should read the encyclical Humanae Vitae. The intention of Pope Paul VI was the love of defending against sexuality as consumption, the future against the alleged exclusivity of this nature and of man against his manipulation.
I think that’s some pretty good stuff.
hi, Peter,
I have 2 exciting points to raise:
Point 1: the pope says the reason the church condones relationships only between men & women is to protect ‘creation’. ie, to promote only lifestyles that result in ‘creation’.
But… the pope has no children?
Point 2: Whereas tropical forests & human security are in decline, human creation is going the exact opposite way. We need protection against ‘population decline’ about as much as we need protection against human kindness.
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Hi Daniel,
i) There’s a long and honourable tradition of Christian ministers sacrificing the joy of family life to commit themselves to service. Nothing wrong there as far as I can see.
ii) I think that the Pope is obviously highlighting moral and spiritual decline rather than numerical decline.
Mildly exciting, I’ll grant you!!!
Indeed Peter, so there is. But voluntarily foregoing marriage and making it a requirement for being a minister of Word and Sacrament are two very different things!
Reformationally yours,
John Foxe
I don’t think I would disagree in the slightest JF.
By the way, I think you’re literally just down the road from me, but have we met in the flesh??
As to the Pope not having kids questions – Ministers are supposed to give all their time and energy to being ministers – I know my dad would have a hard time doing that while I was there demanding his attention.
We cannot remain stuck in the 60s with Paul (I think it was “Paul”) Erlich’s Malthusian warnings about “overpopulation”.
The world is not overpopulated, and never has been. If anything, the population is predicted to level off soon.