Cardinal Christmas Messages - Scotland

Cardinal Keith O'Brien
Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh

As the season of Advent has progressed we have focussed increasingly on the birth of our Saviour, on that familiar scene of the stable in Bethlehem, and on the hope and the promise that new life offers to the world.

As I reflect on that promise I think of the centrality of the human family in God’s plan of salvation. We are all members of our own immediate families, but there is also around us that family of society, comprising the many families of the peoples of Scotland, and the international community or family of nations where many bonds link and bind us together.

This year began with profound concerns for the international family as violence erupted in Kenya.

The world was shocked by news of the deliberate burning alive of women and children who had huddled together seeking refuge in a church.

I was contacted by Scottish nuns who alerted me to events, which were putting their lives at risk.

More recently, I have been contacted by priests in Nigeria where troubles and unrest have affected them and their peoples.

One priest wrote to me: “I am sure that by now you must have heard that we are under siege here in Jos by some militants. Christians were attacked and killed and churches burnt. There was a total security failure on the part of our Government. Even though the situation appears to be under control after two days of carnage the atmosphere is very tense”.

As we yearn for peace as Christmas approaches, we remember those not at peace who put their lives at risk in the service of the Gospel.

At home the increasing sexualised messages we send to the young people in our Scottish families leave me and many others concerned and dismayed. We should not be surprised that the gift of sex has been devalued.

Children are almost egged on to experiment through bombardment by ‘safe sex’ messages.

This inevitably results in unwanted pregnancies, abortions and heartache. Many children now have to deal with emotional problems that trouble the most mature of adults.

There is no doubt that a stable family is the key to so many benefits for spouses and children. It saddens me that many people miss out on this because they are presented with a distorted vision of sexuality at a young age.

2008 marked the 40th anniversary of one of the most controversial documents in the Church’s history, ‘Humanae Vitae’.

At its launch Pope Paul VI warned that the contraceptive pill would lead to infidelity, a decrease in respect for woman, the intervention of public authorities in the private lives of families for population control and a general decline in morality.

Four decades later it is abundantly clear that every one of these predictions has come true.

At the core of that document was the understanding that couples can participate with God in the creation of a new life and that new life is a gift from God to be treasured. If we were to take that message seriously and adapt our lives to it how different family life in Scotland would be.

The idea of human life as a gift received a heavy blow in recent weeks, as our MP’s considered and then passed the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

The Bill approved the use of various immoral treatments on embryonic human life. At a time when many believe that adult stem cells have a more promising future than embryonic cells – the Government continues to approve and fund unethical and unsuccessful therapies.

Fortunately, in a document produced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on
December 12.

The church affirmed two fundamental ethical principles: Human beings are to be respected and treated as persons from the moment of conception; and therefore possess an inviolable right to life and the origin of human life has its authentic context in marriage, where it is generated through an act which expresses the reciprocal love between a man and a woman.

These principles set out in ‘Dignitas Personae’ help us to distinguish research or treatment that fails to respect the dignity of the human person, and may even involve the deliberate destruction of human live, from authentic medical science at the service of humanity and the common good.

Recent discussions about the ‘right to die’ also risk infringing the common good. A life is a gift from God, given freely, so that our call from life on this earth is also at the behest of God. I actively support all those who campaign for the ‘right to live’, for those who are suffering and near death.

But that right to live must be available for us all in the loving care of our hospices or at home with our families and proper palliative care.

Not without reason has the Church taught repeatedly that the family is the basic cell of society. If we damage that unit, it will be to the detriment of us all.

Perhaps we should turn again to that nativity scene, where Mary and Joseph, entirely bereft of material wealth, are united in love and adoration of God’s gift of a child.

The example of the ‘Holy Family’ should fill us all with a renewed respect for ‘the family’ in society and across the world as we face a ‘challenging future’.
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Sotto Voce

(Source: TU)