Pope: Christians in politics defend life, family, common good

(Vatican Radio) Pope Benedict XVI today received the participants in the meeting of the Christian Democrat international organization’s Executive Committee, which took place on Friday in Rome. The Holy Father encouraged the committee members to continue in their commitment to improving the quality of human relationships and conditions of life in ammanner consonant with Christian principles. “This commitment,” said Pope Benedict, “must know no bending or folding, but instead should be lavished with renewed vitality, in view of the continuing and - in some ways - the deepening of the problems we face.” Listen to our report:

The Holy Father encouraged his guests to speak to the ongoing economic and financial crisis with a “prophetic spirit” proper to Christians.

Pope Benedict went on to say, “The political and institutional contributions that you make will not only be required to respond to the urgent needs of a market-logic, but should continue to take as central and essential the pursuit of the common good, rightly understood, as well as the promotion and protection of the inalienable dignity of the human person.”

The Pope went on to discuss the importance of defending the traditional family founded on marriage as the basic unit of society and the building-block of community. Noting how Blessed John Paul II had included among the basic human rights, “The right to live in a united family and in a moral environment conducive to the development of his personality.” “The family,” said Pope Benedict, “is the principle and most incisive locus of the education of the human person.” Pope Benedict went on to say, “The family, the original cell of society, is therefore the root that nourishes not only the individual, but also the very basis of social coexistence.”