“We have the duty to study diligently” up to the point where biotechnology and medicine “can help humans” and not “amount to a manipulation of man,” Pope Benedict XVI said.Humanity, the Pontiff explained, should remain “vigilant” against a culture that does not respect human life, especially its weakest members.
“Once we have begun to distinguish (and this often already happens in the mother's womb) between a life that is worthy to be lived and one that is unworthy, then no other phase of existence will be spared, particularly old age and illness.”
The Pope spoke on such an issue so dear to him when he received the Letters of Credence of Walter Jürgen Schmid, the new ambassador of Germany to the Holy See.
In his address, Benedict XVI stressed that today “many people tend to show an overriding inclination towards more permissive religious convictions. The personal God of Christianity, Who reveals Himself in the Bible, is replaced by a supreme being, mysterious and undefined, who has only a vague relation with the personal life of human beings.”
“These ideas are increasingly animating discussion in society, especially as regards to areas of justice and lawmaking", the Pope said. If, however, “one abandons faith in a personal God, then an alternative 'god' arises, one who does not know, does not feel and does not speak. And more than ever, he does not have a will. If God does not have His own will, then good and evil end up being indistinguishable. Good and evil are no longer in contradiction, but are in opposition in which one is complementary to the other. Man thus loses the moral and spiritual energy necessary for the overall development of the person. Social activity is increasingly dominated by private interest or by power calculations, to the detriment of society. If instead God is a Person—and the order of Creation as well as the presence of so many Christians convinced of it in society is a start—, it follows that an order of values is legitimated.”
“The Church,” the Holy Father explained, “looks with concern at the growing attempts to eliminate the Christian concept of marriage and the family from the conscience of society. Marriage is the lasting union of love between a man and a woman, which is always open to the transmission of human life.”
“One condition is how partners related to one another forever. For this reason, a certain level of maturity in the person is needed and a fundamental existential and social attitude, “a ‘culture of the person,’ to quote my predecessor John Paul II. The existence of a culture of the person depends on other social developments. It is possible that in some societies, the culture of the person decline, often and paradoxically when standards of living rise.”
“In preparing and accompanying spouses, we must create basic conditions to lift and develop this culture. At the same time, we must be aware that the success of marriage depends upon us all, on the personal culture of each individual citizen. In this sense, the Church cannot approve legislative initiatives that involve a re-evaluation of alternative models of marriage and family life. They contribute to a weakening of the principles of natural law, and thus to the relativisation of all legislation and confusion about values in society.”
Finally, “a principle of the Christian faith, anchored in natural law, is that the human person must be protected when it is weak. Human beings always take priority over other purposes. The new possibilities offered by biotechnology and medicine often put us in difficult situations in which we walk on thin ice.”
It is “our duty to study how these methods can help man, and where they involve manipulation of man, the violation of his integrity and dignity. We cannot reject these developments, but we must remain highly vigilant. Once we have begun to distinguish (and this often already happens in the mother's womb) between a life that is worthy to be lived and one which is unworthy, then no other phase of existence will be spared, particularly old age and illness.”
SIC: AN/EU