The
following is a
clear statement of traditional Church teaching on the subject of
"Contraception".
But it does not go back far enough in time. We know that the
Church has
been terribly wrong at times throughout the Ages. And we know
that it
often takes the Church centuries to correct its errors.
Particularly in the realm of the role of women and of sex in general,
the
Church in the early centuries was conflicted. So: WHERE IS IT
WRITTEN, in
the Old Testament and in the words and teaching of Jesus? I
personally
will seek help in answering this question. Meanwhile, I will
adhere
to my position expressed in items #1 and #3 of this
series...specifically as it
relates to the Church's lack of jurisdiction in the prayerful and
responsible
decisions of a committed and loving married man and wife regarding the
spacing
of their children...and regarding how and when they most intimately
express that
love.
GS
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ZENIT, The world seen from Rome
News Agency
==================================================
Vatican Official: Yes, We're in a State of Generalized Crisis, But
There's Hope
Archbishop Fisichella Addresses Emmanuel Community Conference
By Salvatore Cernuzio
ROME, FEB. 1, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Christ, my hope, is risen and goes
before you
to Galilee, began Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, president of the
Pontifical
Council for Promoting New Evangelization, as he addressed a conference
sponsored by the Emmanuel Community, which asked precisely the
question: In a
Period of Crisis, What Hope?
The archbishop went on to point out that for 2,000 years we have walked
the
paths of the world repeating in an unaltered way this proclamation, old
because
it harks back to our origins and new because it commits today's faith
and
settles the originality of the Christian faith.
Christ is truly risen, he continued, stressing the fact that if we do
not
believe this then Jesus of Nazareth is just a great historical event
with a
strong and wise message and the Church is a great society which can no
longer
describe herself as 'sacrament and instrument of the profound union
with God
and of the unity of the whole human race.'
Today there is no longer any distinction between what is real and
imaginary,
what is good and evil, what is the result of our faith and what is the
fruit of
some ideology, Archbishop Fisichella declared. Why is it, he asked,
that the
West is increasingly showing signs of a widespread foolishness.
Anguish
There is in many a pathological situation of anguish, which is born of
doubt
and results in despair, leading to a form of depression that spreads
like an
oil stain especially among the youngest, the Vatican official
reflected. What
is often experienced is a tragedy that impedes one from seeing a
positive
solution.
To understand the current state of this crisis we need to look back
into the
recent past, he said. The two World Wars, totalitarian regimes, Marxist
ideology,
and the desire for domination over others, demonstrate how society,
though
advanced, does not succeed in finding ways of international coexistence
that
are able to respect the peculiarities of each one.
Then, the repeated failures of the United Nations demonstrate an
inability to
resolve problems both in the economic and political spheres. Combined
with the
predominance of an economic system that operates without ethical
principles we
have now arrived at a situation of generalized crisis, Archbishop
Fisichella
commented.
To this we can add biomedical research that, in addition to its
positive
results, has introduced a form of eugenics that clashes with the
advance of
science and social progress creating ever more profound conflict at the
level
of ethical decisions in our social lives.
An example of this is distrust in the continuation of life in a state
of
suffering or the lack of dignity that seems to come to those advanced
in age,
which leads us to consider ever more often the self-determination also
of
death, as a burden from which to free oneself at the appearance of the
first
signs of old age.
Consequently, we are faced with a widening of individual rights which
leads to
delegating every ethical decision to the private sphere and which makes
evident
the nature of the crisis we are witnessing, which is cultural and
anthropological.
Presence of Christ
The world needs a living hope, exclaimed Archbishop Fisichella,
recalling the
conclusive words of the Vatican II document Gaudium et spes. But what
hope? as
the title of the congress suggests. Christian hope, he answered. In
other
words, the presence of Christ in the life of every believer, full and
total
mystery that God willed to reveal.
In the Christian view, hope is not the fruit of man's discovery, but of
a full,
total and gratuitous act of the love of God, which consists in the call
to
salvation through participation in his very life, he explained.
This hope, however, does not arise in a moment of suffering or
discomfort,
otherwise it would not be distinguished from the generic sentiment to
grasp
something as a last-minute solution to evil. On the contrary, Christian
hope
has two older sisters – as Peguy wrote – that never abandon him: faith
and
charity.
Hence, in a period when terms such as precariousness, degradation,
crisis, have
become common, the mission of believers to be witnesses of hope comes
into
play.
Christian hope, if lived in its communal dimension, is the real way for
the new
evangelization, the pontifical council president suggested. It is not a
private
event but the action of the whole believing community, which in this
way
becomes a sign for the whole of humanity and makes it possible to
understand
why the believer must hope for all and for the salvation of all.