By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY – The Catholic Church has a positive vision of human life, marriage and family which must not be presented as a list of things the Church opposes, Pope Benedict XVI told the Bishops of Scotland.
The Church’s “positive and inspiring vision of human life, the beauty of marriage and the joy of parenthood” are “rooted in God’s infinite, transforming and ennobling love for all of us, which opens our eyes to recognise and love his image in our neighbour,” the Pope said.
“Be sure to present this teaching in such a way that it is recognised for the message of hope that it is,” he told the Bishops on 5 February as they were finishing their ad limina visits to the Vatican to report on the status of their dioceses.
Too often, he said, “the Church’s doctrine is perceived as a series of prohibitions and retrograde positions, whereas the reality, as we know, is that it is creative and life-giving.”
Protecting human life at every stage of existence is a key concern for the Church, he said, and “support for euthanasia strikes at the very heart of the Christian understanding of the dignity of human life.” The End of Life Assistance Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament in January and several polls showed that a majority of Scots favour allowing assisted suicide for the terminally ill.
“The increasing tide of secularism” in Scotland and modern approaches to medical ethics and to biotechnology, especially those involving human embryos, “give cause for great concern,” the Pope said. “If the Church’s teaching is compromised, even slightly, in one such area, then it becomes hard to defend the fullness of Catholic doctrine in an integral manner,” he said.
The Pope, who is scheduled to visit Scotland in mid-September, said one key to defending human life and the family in society is to help lay Catholics understand the teaching and their role in promoting it. “Sometimes a tendency to confuse ‘lay apostolate’ with ‘lay ministry’ has led to an inward-looking vision,” where lay people think that if they are not employed by the Church, they do not have a role in the Church, he said.
The Second Vatican Council taught that “wherever the lay faithful live out their baptismal vocation – in the family, at home, at work – they are actively participating in the Church’s mission to sanctify the world,” he said.
The Pope said he hoped the people of Scotland would prepare for his visit by praying that “it will be a time of grace for the whole Catholic community,” and he asked Bishops to use the next seven months “to deepen (the people’s) faith and to rekindle their commitment to bear witness to the Gospel.”