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Marriage one man and one woman for nurturing children: Pope Francis’ first encyclical
LifeSiteNews ^ | Friday, July 5, 2013 | Hilary White

Posted on 07/05/2013 8:20:03 AM PDT by upchuck

ROME, July 5, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In his first encyclical letter, released this morning, Pope Francis has reiterated that marriage is a union of one man and one woman for the procreation and nurturing of children.

This lifelong pledge is possible only in the light of a greater plan for marriage, he said: “Promising love for ever is possible when we perceive a plan bigger than our own ideas and undertakings, a plan which sustains us and enables us to surrender our future entirely to the one we love.”

Titled Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith), the encyclical is known to have been authored mainly by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who was still working on it at the time of his abdication and it strongly reflects the theological style of Francis’ predecessor. In his introduction, Pope Francis wrote that he merely “added a few contributions of my own.” 

Section 52, on Faith and the Family, calls the family the “first setting in which faith enlightens the human city.”

“I think first and foremost of the stable union of man and woman in marriage," he said. "This union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgment and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation, whereby spouses can become one flesh (cf. Gen 2:24) and are enabled to give birth to a new life, a manifestation of the Creator’s goodness, wisdom and loving plan. 

“Grounded in this love, a man and a woman can promise each other mutual love in a gesture which engages their entire lives and mirrors many features of faith. Faith also helps us to grasp in all its depth and richness the begetting of children, as a sign of the love of the Creator who entrusts us with the mystery of a new person.” 

Anthony Ozimic, communications manager for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children told LifeSiteNews.com today, “The Pope is linking being pro-life with having a correct understanding of the true nature of marriage. His words will be of great assistance to pro-life organisations who are fighting homosexual ‘marriage’. We know that the homosexual attack on marriage is an attack on the family, which is the best protector of children, both born and unborn.” 

Ozimic said that although the section of the encyclical on the subject was short, only a few paragraphs, it is a “significant” aid in the struggle against the global efforts by the homosexualist lobby to dismantle legal definitions of marriage. 

“The message from Pope Francis in his first encyclical is that the life-bearing potential of heterosexuality is the prerequisite of marriage,” Ozimic said. 

The letter has made clear that “the type of love required for marriage” is not that promoted by the modern media or the sexual revolution, “of sexual desire and personal satisfaction, but a complementarity between the sexes leading to total mutual self-giving and thus openness to the responsibility of parenthood”.

Paragraph 53 says, “In the family, faith accompanies every age of life, beginning with childhood: children learn to trust in the love of their parents. 

“This is why it is so important that within their families parents encourage shared expressions of faith which can help children gradually to mature in their own faith.”


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: marriage; moralabsolutes; pope
The Man tells it like it is.

I doubt any of the gay marriage freaks can understand this.

1 posted on 07/05/2013 8:20:03 AM PDT by upchuck
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To: upchuck

Will the IRS now target the Pope?


2 posted on 07/05/2013 8:26:45 AM PDT by preacher (Communism has only killed 100 million people: Let's give it another chance!)
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To: upchuck

The Pope needs to talk to Nancy Pelosi, one of them seems to not understand Catholisism


3 posted on 07/05/2013 8:44:16 AM PDT by thorvaldr
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To: upchuck

BTTT


4 posted on 07/05/2013 8:58:30 AM PDT by kitkat (STORM THE HEAVENS WITH PRAYERS FOR OUR COUNTRY)
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To: thorvaldr
The Pope needs to talk to Nancy Pelosi, one of them seems to not understand Catholisism

The Pope needs to excommunicate Nancy Pelosi. Not just for her views on "gay" marriage; but, also her views on abortion (which she termed as "sacred") should not be tolerated.

5 posted on 07/05/2013 8:58:43 AM PDT by LibertarianLiz
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To: upchuck

This will disappoint the libs who were hoping that Pope Francis would be the right guy to liberalize the Church into their revisionist version of it.

There will, I presume, be nothing really new in this encyclical, but it will be based upon the Bible, earlier pronouncements and theological writings, and a long historical tradition defining the nature of marriage.

But it’s clearly time to restate that traditional view, laying it out in terms that no one can mistake.


6 posted on 07/05/2013 9:04:06 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: upchuck

I’m not sure the Pope’s opinion is actually backed up by scripture.

Start with Matthew 19. The pharisees try to trick Jesus and try to get him to weigh in on the divorce issue. The pharisees cite Moses. Jesus counters and says we must go back to the beginning - Adam and Eve, to find the true nature of marriage.

Therefore, let us look to Genesis 2:18:

The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

I.e., God created marriage because being a single guy isn’t good for your long-term well being, a fact as true today as it was 4000 years ago. There is nothing about children.

Given the church’s position of married priests, there may be some cognitive dissonance going on.


7 posted on 07/05/2013 10:15:21 AM PDT by estopthat
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To: upchuck

The FBI will be checking out the Pope to make sure he’s not a ‘lone wolf’ and member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Homeland Insecurity thinks he might be a domestic terrorists - and they’ll be sending over some TSA goons to rough him up - and the NSA? They’ll be recording all of his phone calls for the next seven years.

Our homegrown thugs in action....

Aren’t you proud to be an American?


8 posted on 07/05/2013 11:29:27 AM PDT by GOPJ ((MSNBC?)... liberal anger - - the privileged wheeze of entitled brats ... Greenfield)
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To: upchuck; netmilsmom; thefrankbaum; Tax-chick; GregB; saradippity; Berlin_Freeper; Litany; ...
Full Text
9 posted on 07/05/2013 1:55:50 PM PDT by NYer ( "Run from places of sin as from the plague."--St John Climacus)
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To: estopthat

For I would that all men were even as I myself.... I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn. — 1 Corinthians 7:7-9


10 posted on 07/05/2013 6:30:40 PM PDT by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Gone Galt, 11/07/12----No king but Christ! Don't tread on me!)
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To: LibertarianLiz; thorvaldr
If Nancy Pelosi's bishop has any love in him at all, he should excommunicate her, as the most severe kind of warning that her soul is in the most severe kind of peril. It is what the Church calls a "medicinal" penalty: one which is supposed to impress the person with the seriousnessness of her condition, and impel her towards repentance.

However, this is not the Pope's job. He is the Bishop of Rome, not San Francisco.

Calling Archbishop Cordileone! Salvatore Cordileone, your pastoral "medicine" is needed stat!

11 posted on 07/05/2013 6:54:34 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell)
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To: estopthat; upchuck
Your interpretation is that "It is not good for the man to be alone" means that it is not good for a man to be a bachelor. This is not the only, or even the most significant interpretation.

It is not good for the man to be "alone" because man is an inherently social person and he needs a much broader society, a culture, a civilization. The woman is the "suitable partner" or "suitable helper" for him because together they can produce the human race, i.e. first the family, and via the family, the whole human society which now covers the earth.

So the issue is not just emotional satisfaction, sexual partnering, the companionship of a man and his mate as a couple: the issue is the procreation of a family, a society, so that the earth may abound with a splendid human civilization, a kind of mirror-image of the myriads of angels who are the citizens of heaven.

If celibacy --- singleness for the Kingdom of Hod --- were not the calling of some, Our Lord and St. Paul would not have spoken of it. It is, obviously, not for everyone: but as Jesus said (Matthew 12:19) "Those who can accept this, should accept it."

12 posted on 07/05/2013 7:07:55 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("In Christ we form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." Romans 12:5)
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To: estopthat; upchuck

That’s “Kingdom of God”.


13 posted on 07/05/2013 7:10:06 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Qwerty, ergo typo.)
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To: upchuck
"This union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgment and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation,...

Which is why homosexuals, who are truly narcissists, reject this notion.

14 posted on 07/05/2013 7:51:51 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: GOPJ

What are you talking about? Getting into conspiracy theories? Good grief!


15 posted on 07/06/2013 3:35:22 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: estopthat

And then there is the other Genesis account of Adam and Eve where the Lord tell them to be fruitful and multiply.


16 posted on 07/07/2013 4:57:17 PM PDT by piusv
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To: upchuck

-— “The message from Pope Francis in his first encyclical is that the life-bearing potential of heterosexuality is the prerequisite of marriage,” -—

Homosexual “marriage” is simply meaningless.


17 posted on 07/07/2013 5:04:31 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: estopthat

-— I’m not sure the Pope’s opinion is actually backed up by scripture. -—

Pope Francis and Pope Benedict are certainly aware of the Scripture passages relevant to marriage. And you’re right. Marriage is also directed to the mutual good of the spouses.

So the purpose of a natural marriage is two-fold, the mutual good of the spouses, and the begetting and rearing of children.

The Christian marriage aims even higher. The spouses are obligated to help each other attain heaven, and so too with their children.


18 posted on 07/07/2013 5:12:39 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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