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   BRAZIL: CHURCH TEACHES MAN HIS DIGNITY AS CHILD OF GOD   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 28 OCT 2010 (VIS) - Prelates from the National Conference of   
   Bishops of Brazil (Northeast region 5) who have just complete their five-   
   yearly "ad limina" visit were received this morning by the Holy Father.   
      
   "I wish to speak to you today", the Pope told them, "about how the Church's   
   mission to serve as the leavening of human society through the Gospel teaches   
   human beings their dignity as children of God, and their vocation to the unity   
   of all mankind, whence derive the need for justice and social peace in   
   accordance with divine wisdom".   
      
   "First, the duty of direct action to ensure a just ordering of society falls to   
   the lay faithful who, as free and responsible citizens, strive to contribute to   
   the just configuration of social life, while respecting legitimate autonomy and   
   natural moral law", the Holy Father explained. "Your duty as bishops, together   
   with your clergy, is indirect because you must contribute to the purification   
   of reason, and to the moral awakening of the forces necessary to build a just   
   and fraternal society. Nonetheless, when required by the fundamental rights of   
   the person or the salvation of souls, pastors have the binding duty to emit   
   moral judgments, even on political themes".   
      
   "When forming these judgements, pastors must bear in mind the absolute value of   
   those ... precepts which make it morally unacceptable to chose a particular   
   action which is intrinsically evil and incompatible with human dignity. This   
   decision cannot be justified by the merit of some specific goal, intention,   
   consequence or circumstance, Thus it would be completely false and illusory to   
   defend, political, economic or social rights which do not comprehend a vigorous   
   defence of the right to life from conception to natural end. When it comes to   
   defending the weakest, who is more defenceless than an unborn child or a   
   patient in a vegetative or comatose state?"   
      
   "When political projects openly or covertly contemplate the depenalisation of   
   abortion or euthanasia, the democratic ideal (which is truly democratic when it   
   recognises and protects the dignity of all human beings) is betrayed at its   
   very foundations. For this reason, dear brothers in the episcopate, when   
   defending life we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, rejecting all   
   compromise and ambiguity which would conform us to the mentality of this   
   world".   
      
   In order to help lay people live their Christian, social and political   
   commitments in a unified and coherent fashion it is necessary, said the Holy   
   Father, to ensure appropriate "social catechesis and an adequate formulation of   
   Church Social Doctrine. ... This also means that on some occasions, pastors   
   must reminds all citizens of the right, which is also a duty, freely to use   
   their vote to promote the common good".   
      
   "At this point politics and faith come together", he went on. "The specific   
   nature of faith certainly lies in the meeting with the living God, Who opens   
   new horizons far beyond the sphere of reason. ... Only by respecting, promoting   
   and indefatigably teaching the transcendent nature of the human being can a   
   just society be built. ... 'God has a place in the public realm, specifically   
   in regard to its cultural, social, economic, and particularly its political   
   dimensions'", said the Holy Father quoting his Encyclical "Caritas in   
   veritate".   
      
   Benedict XVI concluded his discourse by joining the Brazilian bishops' appeal   
   for religious education and, "more specifically, for the pluralistic and   
   confessional education of religion in State schools". He also indicated that   
   "the presence of religious symbols in public life is both a recollection of   
   man's transcendence and a guarantee of its respect. They have particular value   
   in the case of Brazil where the Catholic religion is a component part of the   
   country's history".   
   AL/VIS 20101028 (630)   
      
   SUMMARY   
      
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    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS =Meridian, MS= bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)