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P: 215-295-3045 • F: 215-295-8317
E: [email protected]
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Respect Life
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The Church proclaims the sacredness of each and every human life, from the very first moment of fertilization/conception til natural death - including the sacredness of how each human life in transmitted (cf., A Study Guide to the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church). Respect for Life is apparent in all of the Church's teaching.
MEDICAL - teaching & resources
(Click for a study guide and for a review.)- The Vatican's 8/1/07 Responses to Certain Questions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration
- Pope Benedict XVI's 10/29/07 Address to Members of the International Congress of Catholic Pharmacists
- Is it Ethical to Give Emergency Contraception in Catholic Hospitals? (Chris Kahlenborn, MD, 4/8/19)
MARRIAGE/FAMILY/SEXUALITY - teaching & resources- Casti Connubii (Pope Pius XI, 1930), excerpts from
- Humanae Vitae (St Pope Paul VI, 7/25/68) - highlighting added
- Saint Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body (1979-1984)
- The Church and the scandal of sexual abuse (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, 4/10/19)
- NFP’s Modern Marvels Draws Millennials, Scientists and Some Pushback (National Catholic Register, 7/16/19)
SOCIAL ISSUES - teaching & resources-
The Vatican's "The Social Agenda" and a study guide
- The Catholic Church and People with Disabilities
"People with physical or psychological handicaps number, in effect, about 500 million, but many of these, unfortunately, do not yet have the benefit of the necessary services....Public opinion, which devotes space and attention to passing themes, styles and customs, does not take adequate interest in such a serious problem....there is still a great deal left to be done to overcome the cultural, social and architectural barriers which hinder people with disabilities from realizing their legitimate aspirations....
entrusting purely discretional assistance to the generosity of some people is not enough....International law clearly acknowledges that every human person has basic rights which are inalienable, inviolable and indivisible....St. Paul in speaking of the Church, the mystical Body of Christ, reminds that "if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it" (1 Cor 12:26)....The family, state and Church, three important structures of human society, are asked to make their own specific contribution towards the development of the culture of solidarity so that people with disabilities can become authentic and free agents of their own existence....attention for those in need must always aim at further involving the whole ecclesial community, so that each person, and particularly the one in difficulty, can be fully integrated into the life of the family of believers" (Pope John Paul II, The Inalienable Rights of the Disabled, 11/21/93)A child of pre-Word War II Europe, St Pope John Paul II was iintimately aware that the Nazis promoted euthanasia as a "humanitarian" service for people with disabilities . The Vatican is acutely aware that the presence or possible presence of disability is used in fatally flawed attempts to justify both euthanasia and abortion .In 1978, the Catholic Bishops of the United States began to specifically remind us that our treatment of people with disabilities announced whether we stood for the Culture of Death or the Culture of Life. The Bishops ' Pastoral Statement on People with Disabilities clariffied that we have no option but to stand for life and the defense of vulnerable people. To be sure that this witness carried into our liturgical lives, the bishops gave us Guidelines for the Celebration of the Sacraments with Persons with Disabilites.
Concern for the catechesis of people with disabilities is emphatic in Canon Law: .- "There is a proper & serious duty, especially on the part of pastors of souls, to provide for the catechesis of the Christian people so that the faith of the faithful becomes living, explicit and productive through formation in doctrine and the experience of Christian living" (Canon 773).
- "In accord with the norms established by the diocesan bishop, the pastor is to make particular provision:...that catechetical formation also be given to those handicapped in body or mind insofar as their condition permits" (Canon 777)
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
