Children Deserve Married Parents, Says Pope

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 4, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Children have the right to parents who are married, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope made this point when addressing participants of a conference of presidents of the episcopal commissions in Latin America for the family and for life. The conference Saturday was organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family.

"Children have the right to be born and to grow within a family based on marriage," said the Holy Father, who invited the ecclesial community to "present in all its richness the extraordinary value of marriage that, as a natural institution, is the 'patrimony of humanity.'"

In his address in Spanish, Benedict XVI stated that "the present phenomenon of secularization … hinders the social conscience from properly discovering the identity and mission of the family institution."

In recent times, continued the Pontiff, "unjust laws" have been approved that "are ignorant of the fundamentals of the same."

"New forms of marriage have been proposed, some of them unknown in the cultures of the nations, in which its specific nature is altered," he said in an implicit reference to so-called same-sex marriage.

"Truly, children are the greatest wealth and most appreciated good of the family," the Pope continued. "That is why it is necessary to help all persons to become aware of the intrinsic evil of the crime of abortion that, in attempting against a human life in its beginning, is also an aggression against society itself."

The Church reminds "politicians and lawmakers, as servants of the social good," of their duty "to defend the fundamental right to life, fruit of the love of God," he added.

When this is forgotten, Benedict XVI continued, "the elimination of the embryo or its arbitrary use" is facilitated "in the interest of the progress of science," which without ethics "becomes a threat to the human being himself, being reduced to an object or a mere instrument."

"When these levels are reached," he added, "society itself is offended and its foundations are shaken with all sorts of risks."