VATICAN CITY (CNS): Christian moral values do not infringe upon freedom and scientific research; rather they offer honest, concrete answers to biomedical questions facing the world today, Pope Benedict XVI said.
In today’s secularised world, many people consider religion to be a series of “prejudices that reject any objective understanding of reality” and that hinder freedom and scientific progress, he said in a speech on January 15 to members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who were having their plenary meeting at the Vatican.
The common mentality today, however, “tends to substitute truth with consensus, which is fragile and easily manipulated”, he said.
“The Christian faith instead offers a contribution of truth even in the field of ethical philosophy, without offering prefabricated solutions to concrete problems, like in biomedical research and experimentation, but by proposing reliable moral positions from which human reason can seek and find valid answers,” the Pope said.
The Pope dedicated a significant portion of his address to the importance of the Vatican document “Dignitas Personae” (“The Dignity of a Person”) of 2008, which highlighted how scientific progress should be guided by the concern to defend the sacred nature of human life.
The document presented teachings – and in many cases moral prohibitions – in areas such as stem-cell research, human cloning, gene therapy and embryo experimentation.
Pope Benedict said the document was part of the Church’s contribution to forming the consciences of all people, not just Christians.
The document, like all Church teachings, was helpful to all people who “seek the truth and intend to listen to assertions that stem from faith and also from reason”, he said.
The Church based its pronouncements on natural moral law, which was not something exclusive to religious belief, he said.
“Founded upon human nature itself and accessible to every rational being, natural moral law is the foundation for entering into dialogue with all people who seek the truth and, more generally, with civil and secular society,” he said.
Natural law was inscribed on the hearts of all people and was fundamental in any reflection on rights and responsibilities in civil society, he said.
In his talk, the Pope also praised the congregation’s work with leaders of the traditionalist Society of St Pius X and said he hoped that “the doctrinal problems that still remain in reaching full communion may be overcome”.
