JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: Pope Francis: family based on opposite-sex marriage open to life is the basis of society

Monday 16 September 2013

Pope Francis: family based on opposite-sex marriage open to life is the basis of society

Pope Francis has sent a strong pro-life and pro-family message to the participants in the annual Social Week for Italian Catholics, held this past weekend in Turin on the theme of "The Family: Hope and Future for Italian Society”. The Vatican Information Service (VIS) reports that he commended the participants for their choice of theme, and said that the family is a "path for generations through which faith, love and fundamental moral values are transmitted". He taught:

"A population that does not take care of the elderly and of children and the young has no future, because it abuses both its memory and its promise”.

“As the Church, we offer a concept of the family rooted in the Book of Genesis, of the unity in the difference between man and woman, and the fruitfulness of this complementarity, and we recognise it as an asset for all, as the first natural society. … The family understood in this way remains the first and principle building block of society and of an economy on a human scale. … The consequences, positive or negative, of decisions of a principally cultural or political nature in relation to the family touch upon the various areas of the life of a society and a country”.

"[We must remember the] simple, but beautiful and courageous witness given by many families, who experience matrimony and parenthood with joy..."

Pope Francis's message that the family is based on opposite-sex marriage open to life also appeared in his first encyclical Lumen Fidei - see my blog of 5 July. Also see my blogs about other pro-life and pro-family statements by Pope Francis:

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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.