Address of Pope Francis to the International Colloquium on the complementarity between man and woman sponsored by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (11/17/14)
- Dear sisters and brothers,
I warmly
greet you. I thank Cardinal Müller for his words with which he introduced our
meeting.
I would
like to begin by sharing with you a reflection on the title of your colloquium.
“Complementarity”: it is a precious word, with multiple meanings. It can refer
to situations where one of two things adds to, completes, or fulfills a lack in
the other. But complementarity is much more than that. Christians find its
deepest meaning in the first Letter to the Corinthians where Saint Paul tells
us that the Spirit has endowed each of us with different gifts so that—just as
the human body's members work together for the good of the whole—everyone's
gifts can work together for the benefit of each (cf. 1 Cor. 12). To reflect
upon "complementarity" is nothing less than to ponder the dynamic
harmonies at the heart of all Creation. This is the key word, harmony. All
complementarities were made by our Creator, because the Holy Spirit, who is the
Author of harmony, achieves this harmony.
It is
fitting that you have gathered here in this international colloquium to explore
the complementarity of man and woman. This complementarity is at the root of
marriage and family, which is the first school where we learn to appreciate our
own and others' gifts, and where we begin to acquire the arts of living
together. For most of us, the family provides the principal place where we can
begin to “breathe” values and ideals, as well to realize our full capacity for virtue
and charity. At the same time, as we know, families are places of tensions:
between egoism and altruism, reason and passion, immediate desires and
long-range goals. But families also provide frameworks for resolving such
tensions. This is important. When we speak of complementarity between man and
woman in this context, let us not confuse that term with the simplistic idea
that all the roles and relations of the two sexes are fixed in a single, static
pattern. Complementarity will take many forms as each man and woman brings his
or her distinctive contributions to their marriage and to the formation of
their children—his or her personal richness, personal charisma. Complementarity
becomes a great wealth. It is not just a good thing but it is also beautiful.
In our
day, marriage and the family are in crisis. We now live in a culture of the
temporary, in which more and more people are simply giving up on marriage as a
public commitment. This revolution in manners and morals has often flown the
flag of freedom, but in fact it has brought spiritual and material devastation
to countless human beings, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. Evidence
is mounting that the decline of the marriage culture is associated with
increased poverty and a host of other social ills, disproportionately affecting
women, children and the elderly. It is always they who suffer the most in this
crisis.
The
crisis in the family has produced crisis of human ecology, for social
environments, like natural environments, need protection. And although the
human race has come to understand the need to address conditions that menace
our natural environments, we have been slower to recognize that our fragile
social environments are under threat as well, slower in our culture, and also
in our Catholic Church. It is therefore essential that we foster a new human
ecology and advance it.
It is
necessary first to promote the fundamental pillars that govern a nation: its
non-material goods. The family is the foundation of co-existence and a
guarantee against social fragmentation. Children have a right to grow up in a
family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment
for the child's development and emotional maturity. That is why I stressed in
the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium that the contribution of
marriage to society is "indispensable"; that it "transcends the
feelings and momentary needs of the couple" (n. 66). And that is why I am
grateful to you for your Colloquium's emphasis on the benefits that marriage
can provide to children, the spouses themselves, and to society.
In these
days, as you embark on a reflection on the beauty of complementarity between
man and woman in marriage, I urge you to lift up yet another truth about
marriage: that permanent commitment to solidarity, fidelity, and fruitful love
responds to the deepest longings of the human heart. Let us bear in mind
especially the young people, who represent our future. It is important that
they do not give themselves over to the poisonous mentality of the temporary,
but rather be revolutionaries with the courage to seek true and lasting love,
going against the common pattern: this must be done. With regard to this I want
to say one thing: Let us not fall into the trap of being qualified by
ideological concepts. Family is an anthropological fact—a socially and
culturally related fact. We cannot qualify it with concepts of an ideological
nature, that are relevant only in a single moment of history, and then pass by.
We can't speak today of a conservative notion of family or a progressive notion
of family: Family is family! It can't be qualified by ideological notions.
Family has a strength of its own [per se].
May this
colloquium be an inspiration to all who seek to support and strengthen the
union of man and woman in marriage as a unique, natural, fundamental, and
beautiful good for persons, families, communities, and whole societies.
I wish
to confirm that, God willing, in September of 2015, I will go to Philadelphia
for the Eighth World Meeting of Families.
I thank
you for the prayers with which you accompany my service to the Church. And I
pray for you, and I bless you from the heart. Thank you very much!
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