Monday 18 May 2015

Happy Birthday Karol Wojtyła ~ 95 years young ~ a time to reflect on his Letter to Families


We are facing an immense threat to life: not only to the life of individuals but also to that of civilization itself. 
Pope John Paul II 


This day, 95 years ago this day, Karol Wojtyła was born. In 1994 he wrote a prophetic Letter to Families, more pertinent today than the day it was written. With the near total moral collapse surrounding us, it is well worth recalling a few highlights:


 The family constitutes the fundamental "cell" of society. But Christ—the "vine" from which the "branches" draw nourishment—is needed so that this cell will not be exposed to the threat of a kind of cultural uprooting which can come both from within and from without. Indeed, although there is on the one hand the "civilization of love", there continues to exist on the other hand the possibility of a destructive "anti-civilization", as so many present trends and situations confirm.

Who can deny that our age is one marked by a great crisis, which appears above all as a profound "crisis of truth"? A crisis of truth means, in the first place, a crisis of concepts. Do the words "love", "freedom", "sincere gift", and even "person" and "rights of the person", really convey their essential meaning...


... Everything contrary to the civilization of love is contrary to the whole truth about man and becomes a threat to him: it does not allow him to find himself and to feel secure, as spouse, parent, or child. So-called "safe sex", which is touted by the "civilization of technology", is actually, in view of the overall requirements of the person, radically not safe, indeed it is extremely dangerous. It endangers both the person and the family. And what is this danger? It is the loss of the truth about one's own self and about the family, together with the risk of a loss of freedom and consequently of a loss of love itself. "You will know the truth", Jesus says, "and the truth will make you free" (Jn 8:32): the truth, and only the truth, will prepare you for a love which can be called "fairest love" (cf. Sir 24:24, Vulg.)....

Parents are the first and most important educators of their own children, and they also possess a fundamental competence in this area: they are educators because they are parents. They share their educational mission with other individuals or institutions, such as the Church and the State. But the mission of education must always be carried out in accordance with a proper application of theprinciple of subsidiarity. This implies the legitimacy and indeed the need of giving assistance to the parents, but finds its intrinsic and absolute limit in their prevailing right and their actual capabilities. The principle of subsidiarity is thus at the service of parental love, meeting the good of the family unit. 

...Modern rationalism does not tolerate mystery. It does not accept the mystery of man as male and female, nor is it willing to admit that the full truth about man has been revealed in Jesus Christ...

How can we not recall, in this regard, the aberrations that the so-called constitutional State has tolerated in so many countries? The law of God is univocal and categorical with respect to human life. God commands: "You shall not kill" (Ex 20:13). No human lawgiver can therefore assert: it is permissible for you to kill, you have the right to kill, or you should kill. Tragically, in the history of our century, this has actually occurred when certain political forces have come to power, even by democratic means, and have passed laws contrary to the right to life of every human being, in the name of eugenic, ethnic or other reasons, as unfounded as they are mistaken. A no less serious phenomenon, also because it meets with widespread acquiescence or consensus in public opinion, is that of laws which fail to respect the right to life from the moment of conception. How can one morally accept laws that permit the killing of a human being not yet born, but already alive in the mother's womb? The right to life becomes an exclusive prerogative of adults who even manipulate legislatures in order to carry out their own plans and pursue their own interests.

4 comments:

Luciano said...

Excellent post Barona. With your permission I will use this in an email I would like to send a fellow parishioner who is the local Federal Liberal candidate in the next election, who when asked by me as to how he could run for a party that will include pro life candidate was told that being pro choice is not being pro abortion and was comfortable with that. Now I have to face him almost every Sunday as he either reads or is an Extraordinary minister. Its all I can do not to cry.

Lawrence and Susan Fox said...

Luciano,
Blessed is he who mourns for he will be comforted. You go ahead weeping and share this excellent post. These are the words of the Catholic Church, Christ's Voice on earth. God bless you.
Susan Fox www.christsfaithfulwitness.com

Luciano said...

Thank you Susan for your kind words, one part of my post I should have stated: "how could you run for a party that does NOT include pro life candidates?"

David said...

A Person can merely enjoy two occasions relating to him/her personally.
One, is Birthday - a day in a year.
Another, is Marriage Day - A Day in a Lifetime.
Both are most precious ones, which stay memorable for a long time.

I wish you a very very Happy Birthday to Karol Woytia and all your Birthday Wishes fill the life with joy and blessings.