Posted on 02/26/2012 1:22:06 PM PST by NYer
In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI greets the faithful of the Pontifical Academy for Life during a private audience at the Vatican, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano, Handout)
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday urged infertile couples to shun artificial procreation, decrying such methods as a form of arrogance.
Speaking at the end of a three-day Vatican conference on diagnosing and treating infertility, Benedict also reiterated church teaching that marriage is the only permissible place to conceive children. Matrimony "constitutes the only 'place' worthy of the call to existence of a new human being," he said.
The pope pressed the church ban against artificial procreation, saying infertile couples should refrain from any method to try to conceive other than sex between husband and wife.
"The human and Christian dignity of procreation, in fact, doesn't consist in a 'product,' but in its link to the conjugal act, an expression of the love of the spouses of their union, not only biological but also spiritual," Benedict said.
He told the science and fertility experts in his audience to resist "the fascination of the technology of artificial fertility. Benedict cautioned the experts against "easy income, or even worse, the arrogance of taking the place of the Creator," an attitude he indicated underlies the field of artificial procreation.
Sperm or egg donation and methods such as in vitro fertilization are banned by the church for its faithful.
The emphasis on science "and the logic of profit seem today to dominate the field of infertility and human procreation," the pope said.
But he added that the Church encourages medical research into infertility.
So do you like killing babies through embronic research and in-vitro fertilization. Adopt a baby first.....then see what happens.
**alter girl. **
altered is right with IVF!
Only boys and acolytes, according to church law, should serve Mass. Please check into it.
** medical issues preventing pregnancy**
Adoption first....then they can see what the Lord has planned for them.
So you like killing innocent babies?
Only, OF COURSE, he didn't. He said the desire for control of life, of which artificial procreation is an aspect (and contraception the flip-side), results from "a form of arrogance." The noun "arrogance" is related to the verb "to arrogate," which means to assume control or authority when it is not appropriate, in place of the legitimate authority. As with so much of what Pope Benedict says, this is simply describing things accurately!
This afternoon at church, I had someone tell me she didn't want to stand to near me, because she has her two children, and getting close to a mother of ten (and her adorable pink bundle) might somehow rub off! I was in the process of saying, "But a baby is good for you!" as she hustled away. (This was NOT anyone from the Spanish congregation, btw.)
I'm sometimes astounded at how comfortable people are making aggressively anti-child remarks like this, unsolicited. But whatever ... I have Kathleen and they don't!
For Christians, yes. Liberals love the idea. Christians don’t.
I am astounded by so many things these days. :(
Why don’t you explain exactly why the idea of female priest is morally unacceptable. And then maybe you can explain how your ubiquitous judgment of others’ piety on this board is morally acceptable?
“IVF is not only a means to have children, it is also a means to have better children.”
Flat-out untrue.
What the IVF ghouls don’t tell you is IVF kids have lower birth weights, lower IQs, more developmental issues, and a higher incidence of physical afflictions.
You can get mad at the facts and rant that “I know an IVF kid and he’s fine!” but then you’re just arguing with quantifiable statistics.
IVF parents blithely risk terrible injury to children they claim to love in advance of their birth — out of sheer selfishness and a breathtaking sense of entitlement.
Thank you, NYer. What the Pope has said is in loving wisdom.
From Wikipedia.: Pope Benedict XVI has used female altar servers in Papal masses in London (2010), Berlin and Freiburg (2011). Today only one Roman Catholic diocese in America, the diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska does not permit female altar servers
True. The world has gone loopy.
Are you Catholic?
I disagree I don’t think IVF is against Gods teaching of procreation.
12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
- 1st Timothy,2:12-14
‘Tis unBiblical, therefore, unacceptable.
You wrote:
“Why don’t you explain exactly why the idea of female priest is morally unacceptable.”
Why bother? What reason do I have to think you would grasp any such explanation?
“And then maybe you can explain how your ubiquitous judgment of others’ piety on this board is morally acceptable?”
Piety? Creating children in a petri dish is piety to you? If that is your conclusion, than I am all the more certain that you cannot grasp why women priests are morally unacceptable to orthodox Christians no matter how detailed the explanation.
The basis for the Church’s teaching on ordination is found in the New Testament as well as in the writings of the Church Fathers. While women could publicly pray and prophesy in church (1 Cor. 11:1–16), they could not teach or have authority over a man (1 Tim. 2:11–14), since these were two essential functions of the clergy. Nor could women publicly question or challenge the teaching of the clergy (1 Cor. 14:34–38).
The Fathers rejected women's ordination, not because it was incompatible with Christian culture, but because it was incompatible with Christian faith. Thus, together with biblical declarations, the teaching of the Fathers on this issue formed the tradition of the Church that taught that priestly ordination was reserved to men. Throughout medieval times and even up until the present day, this teaching has not changed.
Further, in 1994 Pope John Paul II formally declared that the Church does not have the power to ordain women. He stated, "Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church’s judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force. Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Luke 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful" (OrdinatioSacerdotalis 4).
And in 1995 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in conjunction with the pope, ruled that this teaching "requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium 25:2)" (Response of Oct. 25, 1995).
Yes ... but not by choice! These 'novelties' have infiltrated the post VCII Novus Ordo liturgy by progressivist bishops and priests. If you have occasion to watch a Vatican Mass, you will not see women serving at the altar .. ever!
Yes. I’ve received every sacrament but Holy Orders. My fourth child will follow the first three in baptism next month. It is clear to me that the most important part of being a Christian is the message Jesus taught of love, forgiveness, and treating others the way you would want to be treated. So-called Christians like “Vladimir998” seem to consistently shun this last tenet, and defend church doctrine that was invented by corrupt men in an organization that takes second place to few in the history of organized corruption.
P.S. Vladimir’s response in 36 is proof enough for all of us that he places egotistical satisfaction well above Jesus’s message.
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