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FAMILY-PROCREATION Jun-6-2006 (460 words) xxxi
Vatican criticizes couples in marriages 'willingly made sterile'
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Couples who use natural family planning to have only one or two children allow "brief parentheses" in a marriage "willingly made sterile," said a new document from the Pontifical Council for the Family.
The document, "Family and Human Procreation," was released in Italian June 6 and was issued to mark the 25th anniversary of the council's establishment.
"Never before has the natural institution of matrimony and family been victim of such violent attacks," said the document, signed by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, council president.
The cardinal said "radical currents" are not simply promoting acceptance of new models of the family, but actually are proposing them as positive alternatives to the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman open to having children.
"Couples formed by homosexuals claim the same rights reserved to a husband and wife; they even claim the right to adoption," he said. "Women who live in a lesbian union claim analogous rights, calling for laws that give them access" to artificial insemination and fertilization.
While various factors are contributing to the problem, the document said, the root of the crisis is a lack of recognition of God as the creator of all human life.
The document said the development of a "theology of creation," explaining the religious obligation to respect nature and the environment, should be extended to include a "theology of procreation," explaining the religious obligation to respect the fact that God created human beings male and female so that they would give themselves to one another, cooperate with him in bringing new life into the world and educate children in faith and civic values.
While the equal dignity of men and women must be affirmed, the document said, feminism has contributed to the problem by trying to "free women from masculine oppression and from the family."
The document called for greater church efforts to educate married couples in responsible parenthood, which is not simply refusing to use artificial means of birth control.
When for the good of the entire family it is best to avoid having another child, couples can abstain from sexual intercourse during fertile periods to avoid a pregnancy, it said.
However, using natural family planning to have only one or a maximum of two children "is nothing other than a kind of series of brief parentheses within an entire conjugal life willingly made sterile," it said.
The document also said the Catholic Church's understanding of responsible parenthood does not end with conception; parents are called to educate their children in the faith and in values, including passing on to them an appreciation for the vocations of fatherhood and motherhood.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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