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VATICAN, June 1, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Yesterday, Pope John Paul II delivered a speech to the professors and students of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its foundation. In his discourse, the Pope emphasized that “a particularly current and decisive aspect for the future of the family and of humanity concerns the respect of man in his origins and the modalities of his procreation.” Excluding all forms of artificial pro-creation, the Pope said, “The context of spousal love and the corporeal mediation of the conjugal act are therefore the only place in which the singular value of the new human being, called to life, is fully recognized and respected.”

The pope also condemned the hypocrisy of genetic manipulation. “With the pretext, in fact, of assuring a better quality of existence through genetic control, or in developing medical and scientific research, experiments on human embryos and methods for their production are proposed which open the door to exploitation and abuse on the part of those who unduly claim an arbitrary and limitless power over the human being,” he said.

The Pope remarked that another cultural and legal area Christians have to confront is the attack on the family. He lamented the legislation in some countries, which has allowed for “alternative family models” and the extension of benefits “proper to the family” to “de facto unions.” He asked rhetorically “Who does not see that the skillful promotion of similar legal-institutional models tends ever more to dissolve the original right of the family to be recognized as a social subject with full rights?”

See the Vatican Information Service coverage at:  https://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/vis/dinamiche/e1_en.htm

The whole speech is available (in Italian) at:  https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/2001/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20010531_istituto-jp-ii_it.html