Pope Benedict XVI walks to begin a mass after greeting Spain's King Juan Carlos, left, and Queen Sofia in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, July 9, 2006. (AP Photo/Chris Helgren, Pool)
Posted on 07/10/2006 12:56:53 PM PDT by NYer
Monday, July 10, 2006
As the whole world surely knows, Pope Benedict XVI was in Valencia this weekend. What you might not know is the significance of what he said: people cheered for him when he was the least “politically correct.” Spain’s Socialist government legalized same sex marriage by an act of Parliament. Every time Benedict said, “the family, based on the indissoluble marriage of a man, and a woman,” the audience of a million went wild.
The importance of this statement is that the Spanish Socialist government foisted same sex marriage, including adoption by same sex couples upon this predominantly Catholic country. The government also passed legislation making divorce easier, and making it harder for parents to control the education of their children.
Benedict went to Valencia to close the Fifth World Meeting of Families, which had been going on all week. Your Humble Servant was among the ten thousand people who attended the World Meeting of Families. The Meeting included a Theological and Pastoral Congress (“Congress” is the European term for “conference”), a Congress for the Elderly, a Conference for Youth, as well as Family Fair with booths and activities for the whole family.
When I gave my paper at the Theological and Pastoral Congress on Thursday, there were perhaps five thousand people in the meeting hall. Early in my talk, I stated the definition of marriage: based on the teachings of the Catholic Church and our Founder, Jesus Christ, marriage is one man, one woman for life. The crowd applauded for little old me. Obviously, they weren’t clapping for me, but for marriage. Being interrupted by applause was unusual for the rather formal, mostly European audience present for the Congress. So, I think we can assume they appreciated somebody saying that marriage is one man, one woman, for life.
Members of the Legionaries of Christ provided simultaneous translations, so the international audience could listen in Spanish, Italian, German, French or English. As the week wore on, the translation service became more and more spotty. The equipment didn’t seem to work properly. There was interference, no matter where one sat in the convention hall. By the end of the week, getting English was impossible. So even though the Legionary fathers provided their outstanding translation services for the Holy Father’s Mass, the English-speaking people I talked with couldn’t get any reception on the channel that was supposed to have English. I had to get the Holy Father’s text from the Vatican website.
Funny thing: when I mentioned this to a European friend, he said without hesitation, “the government is jamming the signal.” I looked at him as if he had flipped. “Are you serious?”
“I don’t know that they did it. But, I wouldn’t put it past them.” Now, look, I don’t know if the Socialist government tried to block the transmission of the English translation. But I can tell you it is a fact, that people thought it was possible that they had. That possibility never entered my mind. I just assumed it was the cheap radio receivers the Congress organizers had purchased for 8,000 or 10,000 people.
So why would the Socialist government care about the Pope’s broadcast? They are afraid that they will become the next in line of governments that have been peacefully up-ended by the power of a pontiff’s message to the ordinary people. John Paul II famously inspired the Velvet Revolution in Poland, which led to the end of Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. John Paul was a thorn in the side of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas. Benedict may prove to be a trial to the Socialist government of Spain.
The Socialist government was not elected to impose same sex marriage on an overwhelmingly Catholic country. When the legislation was proposed, over a million people marched in Madrid to protest. Neither the President nor the Vice-President of Spain attended the Papal Mass, as is customary for heads of state. The Spanish government even financed a pro-homosexual conference that met at approximately the same time as the World Meeting of Families.
The Socialists may have overplayed their hand in Spain. People are sick of the social experiments. Pope Benedict XVI’s inspiring words and gentle demeanor may just be the encouragement people need to push back decisively against the trends of redefining marriage and the family. People are ready to restore the ideal of one man, one woman, for life.
Date: 2006-07-09
Benedict XVI's Homily at Closing Mass
"Parents Are Called to Witness to Their Faith and Hope"
VALENCIA, Spain, JULY 9, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is the homily Benedict XVI delivered today at the closing Mass of the 5th World Meeting of Families.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In this Holy Mass which it is my great joy to celebrate, together with many of my Brothers in the Episcopate and a great number of priests, I give thanks to the Lord for all of you, the joyful throng of beloved families gathered in this place, and the many others who in distant lands are following this celebration by radio and television. I greet all of you with an affectionate embrace.
Both Esther and Paul, as we have just heard in today's readings, testify that the family is called to work for the handing on of the faith.
Esther admits: "Ever since I was born, I have heard in the tribe of my family that you, O Lord, took Israel out of all the nations" (14:5).
Paul follows the tradition of his Jewish ancestors by worshiping God with a pure conscience. He praises the sincere faith of Timothy and speaks to him about "a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now, I am sure, lives in you" (2 Timothy 1:15).
In these biblical testimonies, the family includes not only parents and children, but also grandparents and ancestors. The family thus appears to us as a community of generations and the guarantee of a patrimony of traditions.
None of us gave ourselves life or single-handedly learned how to live. All of us received from others both life itself and its basic truths, and we have been called to attain perfection in relationship and loving communion with others.
The family, founded on indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, is the expression of this relational, filial and communal aspect of life. It is the setting where men and women are enabled to be born with dignity, and to grow and develop in an integral manner.
Once children are born, through their relationship with their parents, they begin to share in a family tradition with even older roots. Together with the gift of life, they receive a whole patrimony of experience. Parents have the right and the inalienable duty to transmit this heritage to their children: to help them find their own identity, to initiate them to the life of society, to foster the responsible exercise of their moral freedom and their ability to love on the basis of their having been loved and, above all, to enable them to encounter God.
Children experience human growth and maturity to the extent that they trustingly accept this heritage and training which they gradually make their own. They are thus enabled to make a personal synthesis between what has been passed on and what is new, a synthesis that every individual and generation is called to make.
At the origin of every man and woman, and thus in all human fatherhood and motherhood, we find God the Creator. For this reason, married couples must accept the child born to them, not simply as theirs alone, but also as a child of God, loved for his or her own sake and called to be a son or daughter of God. What is more: each generation, all parenthood and every family has its origin in God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Esther's father had passed on to her, along with the memory of her forebears and her people, the memory of a God who is the origin of all and to whom all are called to answer. The memory of God the Father, who chose a people for himself and who acts in history for our salvation. The memory of this Father sheds light on our deepest human identity: where we come from, who we are, and how great is our dignity.
Certainly we come from our parents and we are their children, but we also come from God who has created us in his image and called us to be his children. Consequently, at the origin of every human being there is not something haphazard or chance, but a loving plan of God. This was revealed to us by Jesus Christ, the true Son of God and a perfect man. He knew whence he came and whence all of us have come: from the love of his Father and our Father.
Faith, then, is not merely a cultural heritage, but the constant working of the grace of God who calls and our human freedom, which can respond or not to his call. Even if no one can answer for another person, Christian parents are still called to give a credible witness of their Christian faith and hope. The need to ensure that God's call and the good news of Christ will reach their children with the utmost clarity and authenticity.
As the years pass, this gift of God which the parents have helped set before the eyes of the little ones will also need to be cultivated with wisdom and gentleness, in order to instill in them a capacity for discernment. Thus, with the constant witness of the their parents' conjugal love, permeated with a living faith, and with the loving accompaniment of the Christian community, children will be helped better to appropriate the gift of their faith, to discover the deepest meaning of their own lives and to respond with joy and gratitude.
The Christian family passes on the faith when parents teach their children to pray and when they pray with them (cf. Familiaris Consortio, 60); when they lead them to the sacraments and gradually introduce them to the life of the Church; when all join in reading the Bible, letting the light of faith shine on their family life and praising God as our Father.
In contemporary culture, we often see an excessive exaltation of the freedom of the individual as an autonomous subject, as if we were self-created and self-sufficient, apart from our relationship with others and our responsibilities in their regard.
Attempts are being made to organize the life of society on the basis of subjective and ephemeral desires alone, with no reference to objective, prior truths such as the dignity of each human being and his inalienable rights and duties, which every social group is called to serve.
The Church does not cease to remind us that true human freedom derives from our having been created in God's image and likeness. Christian education is consequently an education in freedom and for freedom.
"We do not do good as slaves, who are not free to act otherwise, but we do it because we are personally responsible for the world; because we love truth and goodness, because we love God himself and therefore his creatures as well. This is the true freedom to which the Holy Spirit wants to lead us (Homily for the Vigil of Pentecost, June 9, 2006).
Jesus Christ is the perfect human being, an example of filial freedom, who teaches us to share with others his own love: "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love" (John 15:9).
And so the Second Vatican Council teaches that "Christian married couples and parents, following their own way, should support one another in grace all through life with faithful love, and should train their children, lovingly received from God, in Christian doctrine and evangelical virtues. Because in this way they present to all an example of unfailing and generous love, they build up the brotherhood of charity, and they stand as witnesses and co-operators of the fruitfulness of Mother Church, as a sign of and a share in that love with which Christ loved his Bride and gave himself for her" (Lumen Gentium, 41).
The joyful love with which our parents welcomed us and accompanied our first steps in this world is like a sacramental sign and prolongation of the benevolent love of God from which we have come. The experience of being welcomed and loved by God and by our parents is always the firm foundation for authentic human growth and authentic development, helping us to mature on the way towards truth and love, and to move beyond ourselves in order to enter into communion with others and with God.
To help us advance along the path of human maturity, the Church teaches us to respect and foster the marvelous reality of the indissoluble marriage between man and woman which is also the origin of the family. To recognize and assist this institution is one of the greatest services which can be rendered nowadays to the common good and to the authentic development of individuals and societies, as well as the best means of ensuring the dignity, equality and true freedom of the human person.
This being the case, I want to stress the importance and the positive role which the Church's various family associations are playing in support of marriage and the family. Consequently, "I wish to call on all Christians to collaborate cordially and courageously with all people of good will who are serving the family in accordance with their responsibility" (Familiaris Consortio, 86), so that by joining forces in a legitimate plurality of initiatives they will contribute to the promotion of the authentic good of the family in contemporary society.
Let us return for a moment to the first reading of this Mass, drawn from the Book of Esther. The Church at prayer has seen in this humble queen interceding with all her heart for her suffering people, a prefigurement of Mary, whom her Son has given to us all as our Mother; a prefigurement of the Mother who protects by her love God's family on its earthly pilgrimage. Mary is the image and model of all mothers, of their great mission to be guardians of life, of their mission to be teachers of the art of living and of the art of loving.
The Christian family -- father, mother and children -- is called, then, to do all these things not as a task imposed from without, but rather as a gift of the sacramental grace of marriage poured out upon the spouses. If they remain open to the Spirit and implore his help, he will not fail to bestow on them the love of God the Father made manifest and incarnate in Christ.
The presence of the Spirit will help spouses not to lose sight of the source and criterion of their love and self-giving, and to cooperate with him to make it visible and incarnate in every aspect of their lives.
The Spirit will also awaken in them a yearning for the definitive encounter with Christ in the house of his Father and our Father. And this is the message of hope that, from Valencia, I wish to share with all the families of the world. Amen.
Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
I'm all for the Holy Father and his message, but I noticed this from the article author:
"What you might not know is the significance of what he said: people cheered for him when he was the least “politically correct.” "
Yeah, preaching to a crowd of devout Catholics that is no surprise at all. Isn't that the way it always is at papal visits? The problem is that devout Catholics are now a minority in Spain. Yes, the majority of the population is nominally Catholics. The number of devout Catholics in Spain, however, is relatively small compared to what it was just a few decades ago. Once the pope flies home there is a chance NOTHING will change in Spain.
And did you hear a thing about it in the press? I was in Spain when it was being organized and left just a few days before it - and it was a massive demonstration. But the Spanish and foreign press tried not to report it or to underreport it, and reported instead on a small gay march that was held.
There actually is quite a bit of feeling in Spain against the things that the Socialists are doing and a great deal of opposition to their attack on the Church. Even people who had been sort of lukewarm cultural Catholics are beginning to wake up, and they are very devoted to this new pope and his aggressive opposition to the anti-Christian policies of the Spanish government.
Zapatero has two more years in power. I don't know what is going to happen at the next election. However, I do know there's a lot of polarization in Spain and a lot of opposition to him and to Socialist policies. The question is whether he will succeed in stifling it. While the writer of the article may have thought the person who told her that the government was jamming the English translations was a little paranoid, believe me, the government is afraid of the Church and is doing everything possible to prevent its message from getting out. This includes refusing to permit certain Catholic radio stations and filing lawsuits for "slander" or speech crimes against Catholics who speak out.
Many judges and public officials have resigned their positions rather than have to "marry" gays, and there is a lot of feeling that the government is doing everything possible to drive practicing Catholics out of public life. So I think the Socialists are afraid, and their persecution is actually having the effect of calling a lot of Catholics back to the Church.
That's true, unfortunately. The birthrate in countries such as Spain and Italy is the real indicator of religious faith, not the numbers who turn out to cheer the Pope.
Beeler....describe further what you experienced in Spain.
Is there a very liberal bent there?
I hope Al-Qaeda is happy that they got a pro-gay-marriage government elected in Spain. Now that's a big moral improvement.
Spain will only wake up after it is over-run by militant Islam. 15 years tops. Black flags everywhere and Sharia enforced. It will take a great Christian uprising to turn the tide against it.
Why would they? Neither is the Head of State.
That would be Juan Carlos, King of Spain King of Castile King of León King of Aragon King of the Two Sicilies King of Jerusalem King of Navarre King of Granada King of Toledo King of Valencia King of Galicia King of Sardinia King of Cordoba King of Corsica King of Murcia King of Jaen King of Algeciras King of the Canary Islands King of the Philippine Islands King of the Spanish East and West Indies and of the Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea Archduke of Austria Duke of Burgundy Duke of Brabant Duke of Milan Duke of Athens and Neopatria Count of Habsburg Count of Flanders Count of the Tirol Count of Roussillon Count of Barcelona Lord of Biscay Lord of Molina General Captain of the Royal Armed Forces and its Supreme Commander Sovereign Grand Master of the Celebrated Order of the Golden Fleece Grand Master of the Order of Charles III Grand Master of the Order of Montesa Grand Master of the Order of Alcántara Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava Grand Master of the Order of Santiago Grand Master of the Order of Maria Luisa Grand Master of other Military Orders.' Knight of the Order of St. Xavier Knight of the Order of the Anunciada Knight of the Order of the Garter Bailio Grand Cross of Justice with Necklace of the Order of Constantino and George of Greece. Bailio Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta Grand Necklace of the Queen of Saba Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum of Japan Grand Necklace of the Dynasty of Reza of Iran Grand Necklace of the Dynasty of Grand Cross of the Honour's Legion and of the National Order of Merit.
Accepted 'practice' by whom?
No mention of "wives" or "husbands".
Well, aren't you the prophet of Doom and Gloom! I believe freeper 'Theoden' got it right.
Nominal or devout (whatever that means) catholic, this past election has proven to be a wakeup call for all conservative Spaniards, regardless of their affiliation. A similar thing happened in Canada when they voted in an ultra liberal government. After witnessing the results, the Canadians turned things around in this year's election.
You should spend more time in prayer for the innocent victims of the Spanish Socialist Government and ask our Lord to shine His mercy on that country. Prayers are heard ... and answered.
Yes ... exorcised them, staff and all :-)
Yet another prophet of Doom and Gloom! Oh ye of little faith. Now would be a good time to concentrate your prayers on the innocent victims of the Socialist Government, and ask for God's mercy and intervention.
Thank you for your testimony!
NYer,
I am not saying "Give up the fight!" I am merely pointing out the error of the author. And it is an error.
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