New Vatican Document on "Family & Procreation" says family today more endangered than at any time before in history

(May 7, 2006): A new Vatican document on "Family and Human Procreation" aims to open the doors to the future research into these debated issues. The Pontifical Council for the Family published the 60-page document on Tuesday, June 6. It was signed by the Council’s President Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo. Among other things, the document recalls that "the family is the only appropriate place for procreation." The introduction quotes the words given by late Pope John Paul II in Puebla, Mexico, in 1979. The Holy Father had stated that "the family is inbred in man and has been established by God. But today, the family is attacked as it has never been before. New forms of union are destroying it; the fertilization techniques are totally taking out human love and birth control policies are leading to today's 'birth winter.'" The document states that "The act of union of man and woman, cannot be separated by its inbred dimension, which is procreation and makes for responsible fatherhood and motherhood. The marital moral rests all on this ground." The document also speaks of the appearance of the single-parent family and the gay, lesbian family. It says "Never before has the natural institution of marriage and the family been the victim of such violent attacks.” In the section on "responsible fatherhood and motherhood," the document insists on the doctrine of "Humanae Vitae" about contraception. That doctrine rules out "any contraceptive method" . "Man is a family being," states the document, "and as such, he is a social, political, economic, cultural, legal and religious being. The family which touches on all of these essential aspects needs services, help, protection and endless promotion," says the Vatican document.