The following comes from a Dec. 28 release from the Vatican Information Service.
On the feast day of the Holy Family, Pope Francis received in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall a group of large Italian families, present in Rome to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Associazione Nazionale Famiglie Numerose (National Association for Large Families). The audience was also attended by families from other countries throughout Europe.
“You have come here with the most beautiful fruits of your love. Maternity and paternity are gifts from God. Your task is to receive this gift, to be amazed by its beauty and to let it shine in society. Each one of your children is a unique creation that will never be repeated in the history of humanity. When we understand this, that each person is willed by God, we are astonished by the great miracle that is a child.”
“And you, boys and girls,” he continued, addressing the children present, “are precisely this: each one of you is the unique fruit of love, you come from love and grow in love. You are unique, but you are not alone. And the fact of having brothers and sisters is good for you: the sons and daughters of large families are more inclined to fraternal communion from early childhood. In a world that is frequently marked by selfishness, the large family is a school of solidarity and sharing; and these attitudes are of benefit to all society.”
“You, children and young people, are the fruit of the tree that is the family: you are good fruit when the tree has good roots – grandparents – and a good trunk – the parents. … The presence of large families is a hope for society. This is why the presence of grandparents is very important: a valuable presence both in terms of practical assistance, but above all for their contribution to education. Grandparents conserve the values of a people, of a family, and they help parents transmit them to their children. Throughout the last century, in many countries in Europe, it was the grandparents who transmitted faith.”
“Dear parents, thank you for your example of love for life that you protect from conception to its natural end, in spite of all the difficulties and burdens of life, that unfortunately public institutions do not always help you to bear. … Every family is a cell of society, but the large family is a richer, more vital cell, and the state has much to gain by investing in it,” Francis remarked.
He concluded by praying for those families who are most affected by the economic crisis, those in which the mother or father have lost their jobs and in which the young are unable to find work, and those families in which the closest relationships are marked by suffering and who are tempted to give in to loneliness and separation.
To read a related Vatican release on the address, click here.
I have six young children and it is hard work, but the children are not spoiled and I hope they I’ll appreciate the blessing when they are older. I recommend young fathers to remain open to many children if possible.
The Pope Addresses “Boys & Girls” – at the same time the Abomination of POTUS Barry ‘on the Down Low’ Soetoro Banns Gender as a matter of US Law – using the Imperial ‘pen & phone’.
Anyone – including Schools & Charities that Take Caesar ObamAcorn’s Coin – is Now His Stooge, or else!
SEE
“U.S. announces protections for transgender workers
https://www.onenewsnow.com/ap/legal/us-announces-protections-for-transgender-workers?
WASHINGTON (December 19, 2014) – The Justice Department is now interpreting federal law to explicitly prohibit workplace discrimination against transgender people, according to a memo released Thursday by Attorney General Eric Holder.
That means the Justice Department will be able to bring legal claims on behalf of people who say they’ve been discriminated against by state and local public employers based on sex identity.
In defending lawsuits, the federal government also will no longer take the position that Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act, which bans sex discrimination, does not protect against workplace discrimination on the basis of gender status.
The memo released Thursday is part of a broader Obama administration effort to afford workplace protection for transgender employees…
The new position is a reversal in position for the Justice Department, which in 2006 stated that Title VII did not cover discrimination based on transgender status.
“The federal government’s approach to this issue has also evolved over time,” Holder wrote
Matt Barber may not be Catholic – but he is Targeted by the Same Gaystapo, and a sound ally in presenting the Truth behind many of the Factual Justifications underlying similar Catholic Teachings:
“Christians, Stand Your Ground Against Homofascism
https://townhall.com/columnists/mattbarber/2014/12/29/christians-stand-your-ground-against-homofascism-n1936186/page/full
Defense of God’s design for natural marriage – along with the God-given, constitutional freedom of conscience to decline participation in and, thereby, endorsement of, its unnatural and sin-based counterfeit, so-called “gay marriage” – is now among America’s premier civil-rights struggles.
I know from whence I speak, as 10 years ago I was fired from a major fortune 100 company for writing, on my own time and on my home computer, an op-ed acknowledging the requisite binary male-female nature of authentic marriage and human sexuality…
It’s getting ugly out there, and it will only get worse. The cases are piling up…
– I submit that, if and when you, dear Christian, are placed in a situation that compels you to choose between obedience to God’s just laws or man’s unjust laws, that you not only refuse to obey the unjust laws, but refuse to quit.
Stand your ground… Do not resign your post. Force the government to overtly persecute you – to take punitive action against you for your righteous stand. Even if you face chains.
Pray for courage, and God will provide it.
CCC: ” 2399 The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood.
Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception). ”
CCC: ” 2370 Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality.
These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom.
In contrast, “every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” is intrinsically evil:
Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality. . . .
The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality. “
This is certainly true in Italy, where underpopulation is a problem. It’s also true in much of Europe.
However, I don’t think big famiies in Bangledesh is such a blessing. Now, one might say that the problem is wealth inequality and wealth distribution. Yet, an individual family cannot change these things, and must make sure they can feed their children.
Which, in many cases, means exercising some method to limit births (and, yes, if you are a devout catholic this means NFP or abstinence).
CCC: ” 2399 The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood.
Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception). ”
CCC: ” 2370 Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality.
These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom.
In contrast, “every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” is intrinsically evil:
Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality. . . .
The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality. ”
Read your “Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition” of 1997.
Know your Faith.
Jon J. – ALL Catholics who are not heretics or schismatics
must not contracept.
Contraception is intrinsically evil, and has nothing to do with being “DEVOUT”.
Catholics who contracept are in the state of Mortal Sin, and they may not receive Holy Communion until their sin is confessed and they choose to sin no more.
This choice is theirs, including the choice to spend eternity in Heaven or Hell.