The theology of the body outlined 30 years ago by Pope John Paul II helps the world combat threats to the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of marriage, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia said at a national conference. The cardinal celebrated Mass July 30 for about 450 people at the National Theology of the Body Congress, held July 28-30 at Normandy Farm in Blue Bell.
Participants came from 11 countries and 111 U.S. dioceses, while others who did not travel to Pennsylvania could see the keynote addresses live-streamed on the Internet.
In his homily, Cardinal Rigali said the theology of the body represents "God's plan for humanity," in which "authentic love, always and everywhere, takes the form of a gift of self, modeled on Christ's gift of himself to his Father."
He said society today has reinterpreted human sexuality as "the absolute right to satisfy every craving."
"Embracing consumerism, materialism, individualism, entitlement autonomy, relativism and hedonism, the one thing that the abiding secularistic culture appears unable to tolerate is religion," Cardinal Rigali said.
"The secularistic culture ... has paved the way for numerous errors and distortions resulting in promiscuity, cohabitation, divorce, contraception, direct sterilization, adultery, abortion, domestic violence, sexual abuse and the attempt to deconstruct marriage as the union of one man and one woman," he added.
He urged participants to continue the congress with "a campaign of human and catechetical formation," in order that "the next generation can continue to access and comprehend it."
The congress was sponsored by the Theology of the Body Institute, which has an informative website at www.tobinstitute.org.
In addition to Cardinal Rigali, speakers included author Father Richard Hogan; Helen Alvare, associate professor of law at George Mason University and an adviser to Pope Benedict XVI's Pontifical Council for the Laity; Father Brian Bransfield, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis; and Richard Fitzgibbons, director of the Institute for Marital Healing.
Maria Stumpf, director of operations and programming for the institute, said she hoped the congress would serve as an impetus for evangelization at the parish level across the region, nation and abroad.
Theology of the Body is the topic of a series of 129 lectures given by Pope John Paul II during his Wednesday audiences between September 1979 and November 1984.
It was the first major teaching of his pontificate and the complete addresses were later compiled and published as a single work: “The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan.”
A new translation has been released under the title “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body.” The themes of the Theology of the Body were repeated and expanded upon in many of John Paul's encyclicals, letters, and exhortations.SIC: CSF