The Pontifical Institute for the Family issued a document today:
The Pontifical Council for the Family, founded 25 years ago by John Paul II with the Motu Proprio "Familia a Deo Instituta," and presided by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, today published a document entitled: "Family and Human Procreation."
The text, according to an explanatory note written by Fr. Abelardo Lobato O.P., consultor of the pontifical council, "is destined to be an object of study, both for its doctrine and in its pastoral application." The document opens with "an introduction to the theme of the relationship between … the family and procreation."
This theme is then developed over four chapters covering "procreation; why the family is the only appropriate place for it; what is meant by integral procreation within the family; and what social, juridical, political, economic and cultural aspects does service to the family entail" The fifth chapter presents the theme "from two complementary perspectives: the theological, in that the family is an image of the Trinity; and the pastoral, because the family lies at the foundation of the Church and is a place of evangelization."
"The document," the explanatory note continues, "makes reference above all to Vatican Council II, to Pope John Paul II who dedicated great attention to these matters, and to the recent ‘Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.’ All this means that the document aims not only to find a doctrinal approach to the problem, but also to open doors to future research on the questions that are the object of discussion today."
It reaffirmed the famous 1968 encyclical ”Humanae Vitae” that stated the Vatican’s opposition to contraception. Since then, it said, couples ”have been limiting themselves to one, or maximum two children.”
”Never before in history has human procreation, and therefore the family, which is its natural place, been so threatened as in today’s culture,” said the 57-page document.
It also condemned in-vitro fertilization, artificial insemination and the use of embryos.
”The human being has the right to be generated, not produced, to come to life not in virtue of an artificial process but of a human act in the full sense of the term: the union between a man and a woman,” the document said.
The document did not break any new ground but summarized traditional Vatican positions.
As opposed to "Catholic" positions. Once again, the implication is that these teachings are generated by the Committee of Old Men and there’s nothing organic or deeply-rooted about them.
The document is undoubtedly issued in preparation for the World Meeting of Families to be held in Valencia, Spain in July at which Benedict will be in attendance on July 8-9
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