Vatican City, Jun 5, 2006 / 22:00 pm
The family is the only natural and truly human context for procreation. That is the core message of a document released today by the Pontifical Council for the Family and signed by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo.
The document entitled, "Family and Human Procreation," is intended to be “an object of study, both for its doctrine and in its pastoral application,” according to a press release signed by Fr. Abelardo Lobato, OP, consultor of the Vatican dicastery.
The document opens with an introduction explaining the relationship between the family and procreation, followed by four chapters covering “procreation and why the family is the only appropriate place for it, what is meant by integral procreation within the family and what social, juridical, political, economic and cultural aspects does service to the family entail.”
According to Fr. Lobato, a fifth chapter presents the theme “from two complementary perspectives: the theological, in that the family is an image of the Trinity; and the pastoral, because the family lies at the foundation of the Church and is a place of evangelization.”