POPE ON UNMARRIED

RECOGNITION OF UNMARRIED COUPLES A CONTRADICTION

A Union not Recognized as Such Cannot Be Registered

VATICAN CITY - The plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family, which met from May 31 to June 2, and the congress on the "Paternity of God and Paternity of the Family," organized by the same Council, have studied families throughout the world. The attention of the experts was concentrated on a new phenomenon of our times: unmarried couples.

New Phenomenon

John Paul II received the experts, ecclesiastical personalities and couples who participated in these two meetings to share with them his point of view and the Church's teaching on the issues.

The Pope told them that "For some time, there have been repeated attacks against the institution of the family. These are particularly dangerous and insidious, because they reject the irreplaceable value of the family, founded on matrimony."

Consequently, "false alternatives to the family are proposed and petitions are made for their recognition in law. But when the laws, which should be at the service of the family, the fundamental cell of society, revolt against it, they acquire an alarming destructive capacity."

Precariousness

The Holy Father pointed out that "in some countries there is an attempt to impose unmarried couples on society, supported by a series of legal subtleties that erode the very meaning of the institution of the family. Unmarried couples are characterized by the precariousness and absence of an irreversible commitment that generates rights and duties and respects the dignity of man and woman."

"Thus, juridical value is sought where there is no will for a lasting union," added the Pope. "Given these premises, how can it be hoped to have truly responsible procreation, not limited to giving life, but understanding the need for formation and education in all its dimensions? This can only be guaranteed by the family."

Absence of Foundations

After recalling that the Church's teaching on the family is based not only on the Bible but also on natural law, the Pope said that "it is easily possible to imagine other types of relationships and of coexistence of the sexes, but, no matter what others might think, none of these are a real juridical alternative to matrimony." In fact, it is virtually contradictory to give juridical recognition to an absence of expressed commitment, to unstable unions, and to the lack of an accepted common future.

The Holy Father said that the claim of unmarried couples to the right of adoption is even more damaging, because with this pretension they "ignore the good of the child and the minimum conditions required for an adequate formation."

Homosexual Couples

"Moreover, the 'union in fact' between homosexuals is a deplorable distortion of the communion of love and life between a man and a woman, in a reciprocal gift open to life," continued the Holy Father.

John Paul II pointed out that the conclusion of these proposals is paradoxical: "Today, especially in the economically rich nations, on the one hand, the fear of being parents is spreading, and on the other, there is indifference to the right of children to be conceived in the context of a total human giving, an indispensable condition for their serene and harmonious growth."

Crisis of Father and Mother Figures

Finally, the Pope commented on the issues of the Congress on paternity, which ended today at the Vatican. These discussions revealed another characteristic of the present cultural context: the "propensity of many fathers to abandon their role in order to become simply friends to their children, failing to call them to order and to correct them, even when it is necessary to educate them in the truth, which requires affection and tenderness."

John Paul II stressed that "the education of children is a sacred responsibility and a task in solidarity of parents of families, be it the father or the mother, which demands warmth, closeness, communication and example."