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October 18, 2000
Pope defends family, human life at Jubilee event
By Benedicta Cipolla
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - With the sound of rain pattering behind him and thousands of umbrellas shielding mothers, fathers and infants before him, Pope John Paul II urged families to place children first and respect the traditional family.
More than 150,000 people thronged St. Peter's Square despite heavy rain Oct. 15 for an outdoor Mass marking the culmination of the Jubilee for Families.
An encounter with the Pope the previous afternoon gathered some 250,000 pilgrims under drier skies.
Rain or shine, the theme was the same: Surrounded by the "winter" of societal attacks on the institution of the family, children mark a "springtime" of hope.
"They represent the flowering of conjugal love," said the Pope, stressing children's "message of life" and, with their newborn neediness and dependence on their parents, an "appeal to solidarity."
Deploring a growing modern attitude that views children "more as a threat than a gift," he said children were not merely an "accessory in the project of a conjugal life."
"They are not optional," he said, "but a very precious gift, inscribed in the structure itself of conjugal union."
Calling on the faithful to "reverse this trend" of regarding children as a burden, the Pope called the contemporary situation of children a "challenge to all of society."
He criticized the widespread acceptance of divorce, saying many children "will always bear the psychological sign of the trial that the division of their parents subjected them to."
At the same time, the Pope said the "church feels called not to express a severe and distanced judgment."
Even those who have divorced and remarried civilly, while in a state of "objective moral disorder," are invited to participate in the life of the church, he said.
Divorce is just one phenomenon where children's rights are often overlooked, said the Pope, and despite advances in recognizing the rights of the youngest members of society, in practice they are often denied.
For example, he referred to the growing use of fertility treatments that the church does not condone, such as in vitro fertilization or genetic screening.
"The tendency to use practices which are morally unacceptable in the generation (of children) betrays the absurd mentality of the right to a child," he said, "which takes the place of the correct recognition of the right of a child to be born and then to grow in a fully human way."
The Pope encouraged couples who may not be able to have their own children to turn to adoption, a "true exercise of charity that places children's well-being before parental needs."
Whether conceived naturally or adopted, he said, children need both a mother and father united as one flesh in the sacrament of marriage.
"It is not a step forward for civilization to support tendencies that place this elementary truth into the shadows and claim to assert themselves legally," said the Pope, an apparent reference to recent laws in some countries recognizing homosexual unions.
Appealing to Catholics around the world to promulgate respect for human life from the moment of conception, he expressed hope that governments and international organizations like the United Nations would come to recognize the truth of the church's emphasis on the family.
The Oct. 15 Mass included another moving ceremony when the Pope celebrated the weddings of eight couples from eight different countries, including the United States.
Yellow and white papal umbrellas kept some of the rain off the couples and their wedding finery, which ranged from white, Western gowns to a colorful robe from Cameroon and elegant embroidery from Korea.
