Pope Benedict Says Church Must Speak on Bioethics

(31 Jan 08 - RV) Pope Benedict met on Thursday with members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith holding its plenary assembly this week with a special focus on the new and complex challenges posed by bioethical developments....

Such new technologies, the Pope said, are not just the concern of doctors and specialists but are also raising questions among people who learn of these developments through the media.

Though the church is not called to respond to every new scientific development, he said it’s vital to remember the two basic principles that must guide all ethical considerations: namely, respect for the human person from the moment of conception until natural death and respect for the unique transmission of human life through sexual relations between husband and wife.

In his address the Holy Father also recalled two important documents issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith this past year. The first of those, ‘Responses to some questions regarding certain aspects of the doctrine on the Church,’ he said, reaffirms the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on the unity, indivisibility and indestructibility of the Church of Christ, despite the divisions among Christians over the centuries. While declaring that the Church of Christ subsists in a unique way in the Catholic Church, the Pope says this should be a stimulus rather than an impediment to authentic ecumenical commitment.

The second document from the Congregation last December was a ‘doctrinal note on some aspects of evangelisation’ to counter what the Pope called ‘a persistent religious and cultural relativism.

The recognition of goodness and truth in other religions, he stressed, cannot limit the missionary task of the Church to proclaim Christ as ‘the way the truth and the life.’