Valencia, Fla., Jul 6, 2006 / 12:00 am (CNA).- The President of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, Cardinal Julian Herranz, requested that the world’s legislators consider passing legislation recognizing marriage as “the union of one man and one woman, open to procreation.”

The AVAN news agency reported the Cardinal’s comments during a celebration within the Fifth World Meeting of Families taking place this week in Valencia.  The Cardinal said that the concept of marriage as a union between heterosexuals has been continuously recognized and defended in, “the two thousand year tradition of the Greco-Roman culture,” and therefore is not only a, “postulation of the Church,” but in fact an “anthropological reality.”

In his comments to the press, Herranz also discussed the sanctity of human life.  The cardinal said that genetics has demonstrated that, "from the moment of conception the impregnated cell is a human being in development."

"Neither jurists nor any other person can remove this (truth) when reaching juridical decisions, although this is difficult in the face of the brutal economic and political interests which exist", he added.

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