The Catholic Church speaks the truth, both when, "in the face of the danger of a persistent and religious and cultural relativism", it affirms its duty of proclaiming the Gospel, and when it proclaims that the true Church of Christ "subsists in the Catholic Church", and when it warns against the dangers of not respecting the human person inherent in some biomedical technologies. These positions expressed by the congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith were reviewed and reiterated today by Benedict XVI at a meeting in the Sala Clementina with participants in the dicastery's plenary session.
The pope - who as a cardinal headed the congregation for two decades - highlighted three aspects in particular of the group's work: the two documents published on aspects of the doctrine on the Church and on evangelisation, and the principles regarding bioethics that the congregation is currently considering.
The first document, "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church", "confirms", on the basis of Vatican Council II, "that the one and unique Church of Christ has its subsistence, permanence, and stability in the Catholic Church, and that therefore the unity, indivisibility, and indestructibility of the Church of Christ are not nullified by separations and divisions among Christians". The pope added, "cultivating a theological vision that maintains that the unity and identity of the Church are endowments 'hidden in Christ', with the consequence that historically the Church would exist in multiple ecclesial configurations, reconcilable only in an eschatological perspective, could not help but lead to the slowing, and ultimately the paralysis, of ecumenism itself ".
As for the "Doctrinal Note on some Aspects of Evangelization", this, "in the face of the danger of a persistent religious and cultural relativism, reiterates that the Church, in a period of dialogue between religions and cultures, does not dispense with the need for evangelisation and for missionary activity among the peoples, nor does it cease to ask men to welcome the salvation that is offered to all nations. The recognition of elements of truth and goodness in the religions of the world, and of the seriousness of their religious efforts, as well as dialogue and collaboration with them for the defence and promotion of the dignity of the person and of universal moral values, cannot be understood as a limitation of the missionary task of the Church, which binds it to proclaim Christ ceaselessly as the way, the truth, and the life (cf. John 14:6)".
Benedict XVI faced the questions of bioethics with the premise that "the Church's magisterium cannot and must not intervene in every new scientific development, but it has the task of reiterating the central values in play, and of proposing to the faithful and to all men of good will ethical and moral principles and guidelines for the important new questions. The two fundamental criteria for moral discernment in this area are a) unconditional respect for the human being as a person, from conception until natural death, b) respect for the originality of the transmission of human life through the actions proper to spouses". These principles mean that in some of the practices of artificial fertilisation, "human beings at the weakest and most defenceless stage of their existence are selected, abandoned, killed, or used as pure ' biological material' - how can we deny, then, that they are no longer treated as a 'someone', but as a 'something', thus bringing into question the very concept of human dignity?".
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