Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Family and Human Procreation
Somebody tell me when this document gets translated from the Italian, please.
Amy and her commentariat have been a-dither about how the Big Bad Media is raining on the Cardinal Trujillo parade.
CNS coverage didn't help much, let me tell you.
"Never before has the natural institution of matrimony and family been victim of such violent attacks," said the document, signed by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, council president.
The institution's worst enemy has always been the couples who are unwilling to delve into the true nature of a sacramental marriage, especially with the notions of sacrifice and the presence of Christ.
The cardinal said "radical currents" are not simply promoting acceptance of new models of the family, but actually are proposing them as positive alternatives to the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman open to having children.
Violence? Really? Western culture is all about disengagement, individualism, and paying for privilege. Violence happens with guns, knives, and bombs. Homosexuals are inconvenient to the predominant culture, especially when they aspire to nurture and sustain and do other things as part of natural human virtue.
And I don't see how the cardinal is able to sustain his whoop on man+woman+children. The fact is that many couples, particularly those who marry much later in life, cannot have children. The family is not dependent on a couple's ability to produce biological offspring outside of a laboratory. Many families define themselves as "extended" or "adoptive." In history, parents have not always survived far into their children's lives. Does a family who has lost a parent cease to be a family because it is no longer procreative? Does a couple past childbearing age cease to be a family, or do we just wink and nod because we couldn't very well tell them to join monasteries in their retirement.
I'll save my biggest criticism if I find the document glosses over the needs of the millions of children who are waiting for adoption. I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised, but from what I read on CNS, it looks like "Old Man Theology" biting the Church on the butt once again.
There are times when it's better for these prelates to keep quiet than to damage the Body with documents like this.
