Pope Francis: Children have right to a mother and father [CNA]

  • Thread starter Thread starter CNA_News
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

CNA_News

Guest
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/i...t_Bohumil_Petrik_CNA_3_CNA_11_3_14.jpgVatican City, Nov 17, 2014 / 04:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Children have the right to be raised by a mother and a father, Pope Francis said, emphasizing that “the family is the foundation of co-existence and a remedy against social fragmentation.”

The Pope made these remarks on Nov. 17 at the opening of the three-day international, interfaith colloquium entitled The Complementarity of Man and Woman, currently underway in the Vatican.

Also referred to as the “Humanum” conference, the gathering is being sponsored by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

“To reflect upon ‘complementarity’ is nothing less than to ponder the dynamic harmonies at the heart of all creation,” he said. “All complementarities were made by our creator, so the author of harmony achieves this harmony.”

Complementarity, which is at the core of this gathering, “is a root of marriage and family,” the Pope said. “For the family grounded in marriage is the first school where we learn to appreciate our own and others’ gifts, and where we begin to acquire the arts of cooperative living.”

Although the family often leads to tensions – “egoism and altruism, reason and passion, immediate desires and long-range goals” – it also provides “frameworks for resolving such tensions.”

Pope Francis warned against confusing complementarity with the notion that “all the roles and relations of the two sexes are fixed in a single, static pattern.” Rather, he said, “complementarity will take many forms as each man and woman brings his or her distinctive contributions to their marriage and to the formation of their children – his or her personal richness, personal charisma.”

“Marriage and family are in crisis,” he said, with the “culture of the temporary” dissuading people from making the “public commitment” of marriage.

“This revolution in manners and morals has often flown the flag of freedom, but in fact it has brought spiritual and material devastation to countless human beings, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.”

Pope Francis noted the evidence pointing too the correlation between “the decline of marriage culture” and the increase of poverty and other “social ills”. It is women, children, and elderly persons who suffer the most from this crisis, he said.

The Pope likened the crisis in the family to threats against the environment. Although there has been a growing awareness of ecological concerns, mankind has “been slower to recognize that our fragile social environments are under threat as well, slower in our culture, and also in our Catholic Church.”

“We must foster a new human ecology,” he said.

“The family is the foundation of co-existence and a remedy against social fragmentation,” the Holy Father continued, stressing the importance of marriage in the raising of children.

“Children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child’s development and emotional maturity,” he said.

Pope Francis encouraged the participants in the Colloquium to especially take account of young people. “Commit yourselves, so that our youth do not give themselves over to the poisonous environment of the temporary, but rather be revolutionaries with the courage to seek true and lasting love, going against the common pattern.”

He also warned against being moved by political agendas. “Family is an anthropological fact, he said, which cannot be qualified “based on ideological notions or concepts important only at one time in history.”

Pope Francis concluded his address by confirming his participation in the World Meeting of Families to take place in Philadelphia, USA, in 2015.

Following the Holy Father’s remarks, CDF Prefect and moderator of the colloquium’s opening sessions, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, spoke at length on the central themes of the gathering.

At the core of the Colloquium which has gathered representatives from diverse religious traditions, is the question of the import of man and woman’s complementarity “for the relationship between the human person and God”.

Recounting the Genesis account of the earth’s creation, followed by that of man and woman, Cardinal Mueller said in his intervention the “difference between man and woman, both in the union of love and the generation of life, concerns God’s presence in the world.” It is man’s calling “to discover [this] in order to find a solid and lasting foundation and destiny for our life.”

“In sexual difference,” the cardinal went on, the man and the woman “can only understand him or herself in light of the other: the male needs the female to be understood, and the same is true for the female.”

It is therefore the the aim of the colloquium, Mueller concluded, “to explore the richness of sexual difference, its goodness, its character as gift, its openness to life, the path that opens up to God.”

feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/catholicnewsagency/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/catholicnewsagency/dailynews/~4/POx0UX61qLI

Full article…
 
I wonder how long it will take before the liberal press turns against this Pope with a vengeance, when he starts saying things like children have a right to a mother and a father, and marriage is based on sexual complementarity.
 
Of course, some will try and deny children this fundamental right.
 
One problem I see with framing access to male and female parents as a “right” is: divorce and death. It implies that separated parents are denying their children their human rights, which might even be true most of the time, though usually parents who deny their children their human rights lose their children altogether…

But more importantly, what about children with a deceased parent? Should the surviving spouse be obligated to remarry since his/her children have a “right” to parents of either gender? (Obviously not–but then… it’s not a right, just a positive structure.)

When we talk about “rights” in an American context, we usually mean that something is essentially a choice that should be generally unrestricted though not unregulated–I have the right to vote, for example, even if have to follow certain procedures, though I may lose that right under various circumstances, etc. Framing the family structure as a ‘rights’ issue creates a hierarchy of family models, with orphans–having lost one or more parents–being denied their rights, and therefore belonging to an inferior family and inferior parents.

I hope the Vatican can figure out a way to promote the traditional nuclear family as an ideal framework for healthy emotional/spiritual development without accidentally insulting everyone who is a member of an alternative family structure, often for reasons far beyond their control.

— EDIT:

To avoid several posts, I’ll add that I saw this in the primary article:

“In sexual difference,” the cardinal went on, the man and the woman “can only understand him or herself in light of the other: the male needs the female to be understood, and the same is true for the female.”

Should I therefore conclude that Catholic priests, being generally celibate, are incapable of truly understanding women? If our sexual differences are only illuminated in the context of the opposite sex, aren’t priests who reject marriage incapable of fully comprehending themselves and others? Just a thought.
 
CNA_News said:
…Children have the right to be raised by a mother and a father, Pope Francis said, …”
…
“Children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child’s development and emotional maturity,” he said.
Click to expand...
In an ideal situation, yes, but what happens if the father dies? I don’t see this as a question of the rights of the child in such a case?
 
1newcatholic said:
One problem I see with framing access to male and female parents as a “right” is: divorce and death. It implies that separated parents are denying their children their human rights, which might even be true most of the time, though usually parents who deny their children their human rights lose their children altogether…

But more importantly, what about children with a deceased parent? Should the surviving spouse be obligated to remarry since his/her children have a “right” to parents of either gender? (Obviously not–but then… it’s not a right, just a positive structure.)

When we talk about “rights” in an American context, we usually mean that something is essentially a choice that should be generally unrestricted though not unregulated–I have the right to vote, for example, even if have to follow certain procedures, though I may lose that right under various circumstances, etc. Framing the family structure as a ‘rights’ issue creates a hierarchy of family models, with orphans–having lost one or more parents–being denied their rights, and therefore belonging to an inferior family and inferior parents.

I hope the Vatican can figure out a way to promote the traditional nuclear family as an ideal framework for healthy emotional/spiritual development without accidentally insulting everyone who is a member of an alternative family structure, often for reasons far beyond their control.

— EDIT:

To avoid several posts, I’ll add that I saw this in the primary article:

“In sexual difference,” the cardinal went on, the man and the woman “can only understand him or herself in light of the other: the male needs the female to be understood, and the same is true for the female.”

Should I therefore conclude that Catholic priests, being generally celibate, are incapable of truly understanding women? If our sexual differences are only illuminated in the context of the opposite sex, aren’t priests who reject marriage incapable of fully comprehending themselves and others? Just a thought.
Click to expand...
you are over analyzing this. The Pope isn’t talking about situations where a child will have only one parent due to whatever (death, divorce etc). It is a general overall point that children are served best in homes where there are both a male and female married parents. That is true. Yes there are and always will be situations where that isn’t true and there is only one parent. We have a number of saints that have lost a parent, the two that come to mind are St. JP II and St. Theresa of Liseaux. Likewise and for the most part, most people are called to marriage and that means one male and one female where the opposite of the sex will compliment each other. It is direct opposite of the push for same sex marriage. Take a deep breath and stop mulling this over too much and even if you are single, you do have something to listen to and understand here.
 
1newcatholic said:
— EDIT:

To avoid several posts, I’ll add that I saw this in the primary article:

“In sexual difference,” the cardinal went on, the man and the woman “can only understand him or herself in light of the other: the male needs the female to be understood, and the same is true for the female.”

Should I therefore conclude that Catholic priests, being generally celibate, are incapable of truly understanding women? If our sexual differences are only illuminated in the context of the opposite sex, aren’t priests who reject marriage incapable of fully comprehending themselves and others? Just a thought.
Click to expand...
Those were the words of Cardinal Mueller. It does not seem to me that this comment was particularly limited to marriage. The words would apply to all of us, married or not, since we live in a society of men and women, and we understand ourselves as men or women in large part because of our interaction with both sexes.
 
JimG said:
Those were the words of Cardinal Mueller. It does not seem to me that this comment was particularly limited to marriage. The words would apply to all of us, married or not, since we live in a society of men and women, and we understand ourselves as men or women in large part because of our interaction with both sexes.
Click to expand...
I was thinking about the context of “sexual differences;” perhaps he means something more like “gender differences?”
 
“Marriage and family are in crisis,” he said, with the “culture of the temporary”

**"He also warned against being moved by political agendas. “Family is an anthropological fact, he said, which cannot be qualified “based on ideological notions or concepts important only at one time in history.” **

…These two quotes stand out to me.
In our modern society where culture is engineered by economics, we have lost the family. Look at the Mexican immigrants who still have 4+ children, they are not subscribers to our economically engineered culture. They are part of their own natural culture, which stems from their traditional bloodline of generations of ancestors. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, etc… Not just a mother and a father but much more. Theirs is a natural anthropological one where ours has become an economically engineered one.

…i know im supposed to be talking about homosexual parents. But… 🤷 its all tied together… We’ve abandoned our true cultures for a common synthetic one provided by our government and its money based -its causing problems as time passes.
 
JimG said:
I wonder how long it will take before the liberal press turns against this Pope with a vengeance, when he starts saying things like children have a right to a mother and a father, and marriage is based on sexual complementarity.
Click to expand...
They are interpreting the pope’s upholding of Catholic doctrine as a response to pressure from conservatives,as if he would not do it if he had not been pressured. They are portraying him as a liberal reformer who isn’t interested in upholding the Church’s doctrine on sexuality,marriage and abortion,and the U.S bishops and Cardinal Mueller as opponents of his supposedly radical agenda. When the bishops’ meeting in Baltimore began,some reporters have portrayed the U.S. bishops (with the exception of Cupich,who Francis appointed as archbishop of Chicago) as conservatives because of their opposition to the health care mandate,the government’s infringement on religious liberty and conscience rights,and to homosexual marriage,and they have suggested that Francis is not supportive of their efforts.

abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pope-confirms-us-trip-vatican-family-meeting-26962771

< Pope Francis is seeking to reassure the church’s right-wing base that he’s not a renegade bent on changing church doctrine on family issues — weeks after a Vatican meeting of bishops initially proposed a radical welcome for gays and divorced Catholics. >

< Conservative Catholics, already uncomfortable with Francis’ lack of emphasis on doctrine, reacted with outright alarm after the synod, fearing that Francis eventually might lead the church into uncharted territory that would compromise church teaching on homosexuality and the indissolubility of marriage.

In the heat of the synod, the recently demoted Cardinal Raymond Burke called on Francis to issue a statement clarifying his position, saying the lack of clarity had “harmed” the church and caused confusion.

Francis appears to be obliging.

“Complementarity (between men and women) is the basis of marriage and the family, which is the first school where we learn to appreciate our gifts and those of others and where we learn the art of living together,” Francis told the conference Monday. “Children have the right to grow up in a family, with a mother and a father who can create a suitable environment for their development.”

While Francis has said such things before — he famously led the church’s opposition to legalizing gay marriage in his native Argentina — his comments now appear clearly aimed at calming conservatives. >

< The conference is being organized by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose conservative prefect, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, helped lead opposition to Francis’ radical agenda at the synod. >

nola.com/religion/index.ssf/2014/11/catholic_bishops_baltimore_mee.html

< U.S. Roman Catholic bishops are gathering at a moment of turbulence for them and the American church, as Pope Francis moves toward crafting new policies for carrying out his mission of mercy — a prospect that has conservative Catholics and some bishops in an uproar. >

< Francis is pressing U.S. bishops to make what for many prelates is a wrenching turnaround: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and individual church leaders have dedicated increasing resources over the years to the hot-button social issues the pontiff says should no longer be the focus. The bishops say they’ve been forced to emphasize these issues because of the growing acceptance of gay relationships and what they see as animosity toward Christians in America.

Dozens of dioceses and Catholic nonprofits have sued the Obama administration over the birth control coverage requirement in the Affordable Care Act. The administration has made several changes to accommodate the bishops’ concerns, but church leaders say the White House hasn’t gone far enough.

Through the bishops’ religious liberty campaigns, church leaders have sought expansive exemptions for religious objectors to a range of laws and policies, including recognition for same-sex marriage and workplace protections for gays and lesbians.

Ahead of the midterm elections, the Catholic Conference of Illinois, representing all the state’s bishops, said in a voters’ guide that abortion and related issues had far greater moral weight than immigration and poverty — issues Francis has said are at the center of the Gospel and at the core of his pontificate. >
 
pope Francis said:
“We must foster a new human ecology”
Click to expand...

👍 yes, where natural anthropologic culture is respected as equal to or slightly greater than economics and the politics that flow out of those economics.
 
CNA_News said:
“Family is an anthropological fact, he said, which cannot be qualified “based on ideological notions or concepts important only at one time in history.”
Click to expand...
Excellent quote. Wonder how long it will take for the gay mafia and their enablers in the media to go into a tizzy, if they haven’t already.
 
Yes, gay, lesbian and trans kids absolutely have the right to loving parents who will bring them up without shame, judgement and condemnation.

Sadly, very often their parents are subtly told the right thing to do is to club their queer kid into a the right gender role, or a loveless marriage just because the parents cant face the shame of having an LGBT kid.

The real shame is on those who shame them.
 
JimG said:
I wonder how long it will take before the liberal press turns against this Pope with a vengeance, when he starts saying things like children have a right to a mother and a father, and marriage is based on sexual complementarity.
Click to expand...
About as long as it takes for some of them to note the similarity in his conclusions to this “usual suspect” target of the liberal press:

huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/stephen-colbert-rick-santorum-gay-marriage_n_4311003.html
“Every child has the right to their natural mother and father," (former U.S. Senator Rick) Santorum replied. "Every child has a natural mother and father and they have a right to that mother and father to give them what only a mother and only a father can give …”
Click to expand...
“ … The point of the law is to encourage what is best," Santorum said. "It’s to set a standard for what is best, not to set a standard short of what is best, because when you do that you get less of what is necessary.”
Click to expand...
thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/oqp7iz/11-19-13-in–60-seconds < video from the Comedy Central interview in which the Senator said the above. November 19, 2013 – one year ago today (EST) 😉
 
Levitici said:
Yes, gay, lesbian and trans kids absolutely have the right to loving parents who will bring them up without shame, judgement and condemnation.

Sadly, very often their parents are subtly told the right thing to do is to club their queer kid into a the right gender role, or a loveless marriage just because the parents cant face the shame of having an LGBT kid.

The real shame is on those who shame them.
Click to expand...
I dont know… My brother was naturally left handed and my dad would club him everytime he caught him writing or throwing with his left hand. After a while, he remained right handed, but was the only switch hitter on our little league team. 🤷 go figure…:o

When we tried golf in our twenties, his swing was horrible. I remember him snapping a few clubs over his knee, or just beating the ground with it. :D. It was good comedy.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top