Vatican City, Jan 7, 2004 / 22:00 pm
In a message to the participants in an international symposium on the "Dignity and Rights of the Mentally Handicapped", Pope John Paul II defends right of the mentally handicapped to love and be loved.
The Holy Father writes that "care for the affective and sexual dimensions of handicapped people is also worthy of attention. They also need to love and be loved, they need affection, closeness and intimacy.”
Unfortunately, the Pope adds, “handicapped people must live these legitimate and natural needs in a disadvantaged situation which becomes ever-more evident with the passage from childhood to adulthood. They seek authentic relationships in which they can be appreciated and recognized as persons."
"Handicapped people, even when they have mental limitations or sensorial and intellectual handicaps, are completely human subjects with the sacred and inalienable rights due to every human creature. Only when the rights of the weakest members of a society are recognized can a society say that it is founded on law and justice," the Pope states.