Pope Condemns Laws Against Nature - Democratic Underground

The Sushi Bandit

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Mon Mar-26-07 10:09 PM
Original message

Pope Condemns Laws Against Nature

http://www.corriere.it/english/articoli/2007/03_Marzo/14/papa_english.shtml

Warning to Catholics on family and non-negotiable principles. Priests invited to recite principal liturgical prayers in Latin and reintroduce Gregorian chants. No communion for the divorced and remarried
ROME – “Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society” should not vote for laws that go against “human nature”. In his post-synodal exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis, the Pope called for Catholics to be coherent in politics, asking them to support “fundamental values, such as respect for human life, its defence” and the “family built upon marriage between a man and a woman”, which are “not negotiable”. But the calls and invitations are also addressed to priests on the liturgy, the return of Latin and the administration of the sacraments.
MARRIAGE – “Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself”, writes Benedict XVI. On the legal recognition of de facto unions, he writes: “The good that the Church and society as a whole expect from marriage and from the family founded upon marriage is so great as to call for full pastoral commitment to this particular area”.
PUBLIC WITNESS – In his text, Benedict XVI stresses the need for Catholics who have public positions to make “public witness of our faith”. This is especially important when it is time to take “decisions regarding fundamental values” and for “the promotion of the common good in all its forms”. The Pope also added that bishops are “”bound to reaffirm constantly” the non-negotiable values since this is “part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them”.
MORE LATIN AND GREGORIAN CHANTS – Future priests should “receive the preparation needed to understand and to celebrate Mass in Latin, and also to use Latin texts and execute Gregorian chant”. Believers “can be taught to recite the more common prayers in Latin, and also to sing parts of the liturgy to Gregorian chant”. Benedict XVI speaks up for a liturgy that is closer to tradition and for the promotion of the Latin language. This would serve, according to the document, “to express more clearly the unity and universality of the Church”, “in harmony with the directives of the Second Vatican Council”. “With the exception of the readings, the homily and the prayer of the faithful, such liturgies could be celebrated in Latin, Similarly, the better-known prayers of the Church’s tradition should be recited in Latin and, if possible, selections of Gregorian chant should be sung”.
NO COMMUNION FOR DIVORCED – Benedict XVI reiterated that it is the Church’s practice “of not admitting the divorced and remarried to the sacraments”. This is because “their state and their condition of life objectively contradict the loving union of Christ and the Church signified and made present in the Eucharist”. The divorced and remarried are “a real scourge for contemporary society, and one which increasingly affects the Catholic community as well. The Church’s pastors, out of love for the truth, are obliged to discern different situations carefully, in order to be able to offer appropriate spiritual guidance to the faithful involved”.