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ROME, Jan. 22, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Benedict XVI says Catholic agencies must sometimes refuse partnerships that would even indirectly support activities opposed to the Christian view of the human person.

“We must exercise a critical vigilance and at times refuse funding and collaborations that, directly or indirectly, favour actions or projects that are at odds with Christian anthropology,” the Pope stressed in a Jan. 19th address to the Pontifical Council Cor Unum and its president, Cardinal Robert Sarah, in excerpts released by the Vatican Information Service.

The remarks come only a month after the Pope’s surprise release of a formal legislative document, known as a Motu Proprio, stipulating that Catholic charitable organizations must fully comply with Catholic teaching.

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His address on Saturday reiterated many of the points he made in the Motu Proprio, which came amidst growing concern from the Vatican over scandals at national agencies in the Church’s Caritas network that have been caught funding partners promoting legal abortion, contraceptives, and the normalization of homosexual activity.

In the address to Cor Unum, the Pope said Catholic charities must always operate with “God’s point of view” even though “our time knows shadows that obscure God's plan.”

“I'm referring particularly to that tragic anthropological reduction that reproposes an ancient hedonistic materialism, to which, however, is added a 'technological Promethanism',” he said. “From the union between a materialistic view of humanity and the great development in technology emerges an anthropology that is atheistic at heart.”

“From the perspective of a humanity deprived of its soul and therefore deprived of a personal relationship with the Creator, what is technologically possible becomes morally licit, every experiment is acceptable, every population policy is permitted, every manipulation is legitimized,” he continued. “The most dangerous pitfall of this line of thought is, in fact, humanity's absolutization: human beings want to be 'ab-solutus', released from every tie and every natural constitution.”

Christians working at charitable agencies “should be guided by the principles of the faith,” he said. “This new view of the world and of humanity that faith offers provides the proper criteria for evaluating charitable expressions in the current situation.”

“The Church has always been committed to promoting humanity according to God’s plan, in its full dignity, in respect of its both vertical and horizontal dimension,” he said. “This is also what ecclesial organizations work to develop.”

The pope also discussed the problem of Catholic cooperation with international bodies that oppose the Christian view of the person, noting that “the proper collaboration with international bodies in the areas of human development and promotion shouldn’t close our eyes to these serious ideologies.”

“The pastors of the Church … have the duty of warning faithful Catholics, as well as every person of good will and right reason, against these tendencies,” he added.