To the participants in two
Congresses on Responsible Procreation
RESPONSIBLE PROCREATION REQUIRES DIALOGUE
BETWEEN SCIENCE, FAITH AND THEOLOGY
On Friday, 8 June, the
Holy Father received in audience the participants at the International Congress
on the Philosophy and Theology of Responsible Procreation and the Second
International Congress on Responsible Procreation. He addressed them in
English as follows:
Dear
Friends in Christ,
1.
It gives me great joy to extend a cordial greeting today to both groups present
at this audience. I welcome the
participants in the International Congress on the Philosophy and the Theology
of Responsible Procreation, organized by the Pontifical Institute for the Study
of Marriage and the Family and I also welcome those taking part in the Second
International Congress on Responsible Procreation, organized by the Centre for
Study and Research on the Natural Regulation of Fertility of the Catholic
University of the Sacred Heart. I am
likewise deeply pleased that you have come here together today to give to the
world a united witness to the importance of the matter that you are
studying. Your combined efforts, shared
discoveries and mutual collaboration in the service of truth and the well-being
of humanity render honour to your persons and to your Christian lives. The Church is extremely grateful for what you are doing.
A vision of man's
truth and dignity
2.
During these days of your Congress you have set up a dialogue between science,
ethics and theology on a subject of decisive importance: responsible
procreation. This dialogue answers
an urgent need of our time, one that is recognized by scientists
themselves: the need for scientific
knowledge and its applications to be ruled from within by ethics. This “rule by ethics” does not of course in
any way detract from the epistemological independence of scientific
knowledge. Rather, it assists science in
fulfilling its most profound vocation of service to the human person. All knowledge of truth - including scientific truth - is a good of the human person and for the whole of humanity. But, as you know, truth known through science
can be used by human freedom for purposes that are opposed to man's good - the good that ethics knows. When, in a civilization, science becomes
separated from ethics, man becomes continually exposed to grave risks. Love for the human person comes from a vision
of man's truth, dignity and incomparable preciousness. This truth and dignity are eternal, for the person is called to the
beatific vision of God himself.
Moral value of
responsible procreation
3.
You scientists here present have concentrated your research upon a precise
point: knowledge of the fertile and
infertile periods in the woman's cycle, in order to discover diagnostic
methods of discerning them with certainty.
What
I have just said finds a particularly important application here. For this knowledge and the methods connected
with it can also be used for purposes
which are morally illicit. It is on this
point that the meeting with ethics and theology must take place. By reason of your training and background you
are in a position to make a very special contribution in this field.
Philosophical and theological ethics takes up scientific knowledge in such a way that this latter becomes the path whereby the freedom of
the human person achieves responsible procreation. Only in this way do married couples
possessing the necessary knowledge, accomplish a “harmonization” of all the
dimensions of their humanity, and safeguard the whole truth of married love.
You are aware that each individual - scientist, philosopher or
theologian - according to his or her own competence, is directed towards the
same objective: the moral value of
responsible procreation, and each complements the others, in a precise
hierarchy.
The
experience which you are having during these present days must continue. The teaching of natural methods is extremely vital for the human and Christian
well-being of so many couples, and hence it must never be something purely
technical. It must be rooted in true
science and in a complete view of the human person.
Teaching natural
methods a pastoral concern
4.
In your Congresses you have rightly given ample time to anthropological
reflection, both philosophical and theological.
For in the end all the matters which you have discussed and will discuss
entirely come back to this one question:
who is man? - man in the unity
of his personal being, in the truth of his relationship with God, in the
goodness of the married relationship.
When the answer to this question is obscured, the ethics of marriage is
deprived of its basis. On the other
hand, the full truth of the Creation and Redemption is a light of
incomprehensible brightness that places the ethics of marriage in proper
perspective.
Your
work is therefore in the service of the human person, in a civilization that
has often replaced the criterion of what is good with the criterion of what is
useful. Strive to pursue it in great
unity among yourselves, with courage, for the truth and the good are stronger
than error and evil.
5. I
wish to call special attention to the
pastoral implications of your studies of responsible procreation and your
promotion of the natural methods of family planning. The theological study is basic because “the
concrete pedagogy of the Church must always remain linked to her doctine and
never separated from it” (Familiaris
Consortio, 33). Moreover, this study
leads to a clearer understanding that natural family planning is not an end in itself but is one of the
many dimensions of the Church's pastoral concern for married couples. The theological reflection is also a great
benefit for the many dedicated married couples who give their time and energy
generously, and often at the cost of personal sacrifice, to teaching programmes
in the natural methods. For these
couples are not engaged in a private activity, but their efforts, joined with
those of the Church's pastors, are a part
of the Church's pastoral
responsibility to instil conviction and offer practical help to all married
couples so that they may live their parenthood in a truly Christian and
responsible manner (cf. Familiaris
Consortio, 35). The promotion and
teaching of the natural methods is, then, a truly pastoral concern, one that
involves cooperation on the part of priests and religious, specialists and
married couples, all working in cooperation with the Bishop of the local Church
and receiving support and assistance from him.
In
your own work with married couples, I urge you always to maintain a special sensitivity to their needs,
their fidelity to the Church, and the sacrifices they so willingly make in
proclaiming the Lord's message in and through their conjugal love and family
life. The Church does not claim that
responsible parenthood is easy, but the
grace of the Sacrament of Marriage gives Christian couples a readiness and
a capacity to live out their commitments with fidelity and joy. At the same time, the use of the natural
methods gives a couple an openness to life, which is truly a splendid gift of
God's goodness. It also helps them
deepen their conjugal communication and draw closer to one another in their
union - a closeness that lasts throughout their lives.
Providential that
various natural methods exist
6. We must also be convinced that it is
providential that various natural family
planning methods exist so as to meet the needs of different couples. The Church does not give exclusive approval to
any one natural method, but urges that all be made available and be
respected. The ultimate reason for any
natural method is not simply its biological effectiveness or reliability, but
its consistence with a Christian view of
sexuality as expressive of conjugal love.
For sexuality reflects the innermost being of the human person as such,
and is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love
by which a man and woman commit themselves totally to one another until death
(cf. Familiaris Consortio, 11).
In
this pastoral effort, then, it is important that the various natural family
planning groups should work together and share their research and studies so as
to manifest a unity of purpose and commitment.
In this way the Church is better able to present to the world the values
of the natural methods, and reduce the strong emphasis on contraception,
sterilization and abortion that we often encounter in the world. At the heart of this work in natural family
planning must be a Christian view of the human person and the conviction that married couples can really attain,
through God's grace and commitment to
the natural methods, a deeper and
stronger conjugal unity. Their
unity, mutual respect and self-control are achieved in their practice of
natural family planning.
Once
again I thank you for all that you are doing in this field of Natural Family
Planning, and in the whole area of promoting general attitudes that in turn
influence the education of the young in human love. The
well-being of the family and society is intimately linked to your efforts
and to your success.
I commend you all to Mary the Mother of the Incarnate Word, asking her to assist you in your support of life and in your service to true love.