By Catholic News Service
BLUE BELL, Pennsylvania – 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 on 30 July for about 450 people at the National Theology of the Body Congress, held over 28-30 July at Normandy Farm in Blue Bell. Participants came from 11 countries and 111 US 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, modelled 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”.
“The secularistic culture … has paved the way for numerous errors and distortions resulting in promiscuity, cohabitation, divorce, contraception, direct sterilisation, 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, based in Exton. In addition to Cardinal Rigali, speakers included author Fr Richard Hogan; Helen Alvare, associate professor of law at George Mason University and an advisor to Pope Benedict XVI’s Pontifical Council for the Laity; Fr Brian Bransfield, executive director of the US Bishops’ Secretariat for Evangelisation and Catechesis; and Richard Fitzgibbons, director of the Institute for Marital Healing outside Philadelphia.
Maria Stumpf, director of operations and programming for the institute, said she hoped the congress would serve as an impetus for evangelisation at the parish level across the region, nation and abroad.
“This was an action-packed programme,” she told The Catholic Standard & Times, newspaper of the Philadelphia Archdiocese. “We are hoping people leave invigorated, renewed and passionate for this.
“We hope they become vehicles in the service of the Holy Spirit to do the work of spreading this message.
“Now that they have gained new knowledge, it is hoped that they will talk about it with a renewed Spirit-filled and heart-filled desire to come together with others to share,” Stumpf added.
“After all, this conference is about sharing this important gift with others.”