Mary's Remnant Archives

04/13/01

New Book Reveals Clinton "Dissed" the Pope on Abortion by George Neumayr

[Pro-Life Infonet Note: George Neumayr is an editorial writer for Investor's Business Daily.]

A new book by Ray Flynn, a pro-life Democrat who formerly served as the mayor of Boston and later as Clinton's ambassador to the Vatican, reveals how former President Bill Clinton "dissed" the Pope on the issue of abortion.

Flynn's book, "John Paul II: A Personal Portrait of the Pope and the Man,"shows how he was none too pleased with the White House's teenage-style treatment of the Holy Pontiff.

During the debate over the infamous United Nations conference in Cairo -- where the U.S. advanced an insane international right to abortion -- the Pope personally asked Flynn to arrange a phone call with Bill Clinton. "I think it is necessary that I talk to your president," he said to Flynn. "We must be a world that values and protects and respects all life. I look forward to talking to him about that."

Flynn called the White House to communicate this vital message. But there was no response. He called again. And there was still no response.

"Evidently, people in the Clinton administration took their weekends seriously," writes Flynn.

Flabbergasted that the White House would stiff the Pope in this manner, Flynn boarded a plane to Washington, marched over to Betty Currie's office, and planted himself in a seat as he ate "bag after bag of the M&Ms that were set out in bowls for visitors."

Flynn waited all day. Then he returned the next day. Flynn writes that it wasn't until "near the end of the second day of my one-man sit-in, I was called into the White House Situation Room, the bunkerlike room with maps on the walls that is used in national security emergencies. Several top White House aides were already there, including Mac McLarty, the president's chief of staff; Sandy Berger, assistant national security advisor; Nancy Soderberg, from the National Security Council; White House Communications Director Mark Gearan; and Susan Brophy, in charge of legislation for the White House."

It fell to Timothy Wirth -- Clinton's assistant secretary of state, you know, the guy with the condom tree in his office -- to inform Flynn of the reason for the stonewalling of the Pope.

"Nobody is getting a chance to lobby the president on this one," he said.

Flynn thought this nuts, noting that the Pope is the "leader of one billion Catholics around the world -- and over sixty million in the United States. I think the president should make the call, and I came here to tell him so."

"The room was silent," writes Flynn. "Finally, Mark Gearan, a veteran of Massachusetts and national Democratic politics, spoke up. 'How about this,' he said. 'Can't we finesse this thing a little bit? Can't we just have the president call the pope as a courtesy."

Which is what happened. Clinton, after finally giving Flynn some face time, nonchalantly said, "I'd love to talk to him."

Obviously it didn't help. In hock to the pro-abortion advocates who looked the other way during his goatish interludes, Clinton maintained a sacred vigil over America's abortion industry until the end of his presidency.

It couldn't have been easy to represent Monica Lewinsky's boyfriend to the successor of St. Peter. But Flynn stuck it out for four and a half years, only to return to Massachusetts to read a Boston Globe report, drawn up with the help of Clintonian scumbags, accusing him of being a drunk and screw-off in Rome.

It is no wonder that Flynn broke with his party and endorsed George Bush for president. Unlike the hordes of Catholic frauds in D.C. -- Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi readily come to mind -- Flynn takes his faith seriously and apparently couldn't in the end sell it for a mess of political pottage.

Like the Catholic Bob Casey before him, Flynn sank without a bubble in the Democratic Party for dissenting from its dogmatic position on abortion.

Much of this book revolves around Flynn's admiration for the Pope's rejection of this "culture of death."

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03/16/01

From: "joycelang"
Date: Thu Mar 15, 2001 7:20pm
Subject: His Presence is Real

Paul & Rita Doucette

Hello Joyce,

I could not find out who is Fr. Bedard, but a photocopy of his story was posted outside our Adoration Chapel several weeks ago. It touched me profoundly! Would you please pass it on.

May Jesus continue to bless you! Rita

HIS PRESENCE IS REAL

Somebody told me an absolutely amazing story. In 1995, when Pope John Paul II was visiting the United States, he was scheduled to make a very quick stop at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore. The whole visit would take place on the seminary's front steps. There he would greet briefly the rector, staff and seminarians. He was on a very tight itinerary that day. He had already presided at an outdoor Mass for 75,000 at Camden Yards, visited the oldest Cathedral in the U.S., been featured in a motorcade downtown, had lunch at a local soup kitchen, and conducted a prayer service at the new cathedral.

Sure enough, at the appointed time the Pope and the entire entourage drove to the front door of the seminary. But as the organizers began to direct him back to the limousine, he paused and said, "I think I'd like to go inside for a few minutes to the chapel I have a little praying to do."

I am sure most of us don't realize how extensive and detailed the security is for something like a Papal visit. The team goes over every inch of the route ahead of time. Devices are used to detect possible hidden explosives. Every square inch of space that he is to occupy or be near is secured to ensure his safety. Dogs, even, are part of the team. They have the capacity to detect a human presence. They have become standard participants in searches of living people in the debris of collapsed buildings. When they sniff out the presence of a living person, they stop, point their noses and whine.

At any rate, when the Holy Father announced his intention, the team members were aghast. The inside of the building, including the chapel, had not been secured! These people don't panic, but I'm sure anxiety levels can rise. Quickly they galvanized into action. They delayed the Pope for a few minutes while they entered the building to inspect it. In went several men and two of the dogs.

Down the corridor to the chapel, they went. When they entered the place of prayer, the men let the dogs go first. Back and forth, up and down, the intrepid canines went, sniffing their way gradually to the front, where they stopped immediately, pointed their noses and began to whine.

Why? Because they had discovered the Tabernacle! Jesus, the Eternel Son of God was truly present there in the Blessed Sacrament!

Isn't it amazing that even the animal kingdom can recognize the true presence of Jesus in this Holy Sacrament?

O Father, we acknowledge the Eucharistic presence of Jesus - a true, real and actual presence, and we long, we yearn, we pray for the day when the whole Church will so acknowledge. Speed the day. O Lord!

Fr. Bob Bedard

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03/15/01

From: "joycelang"
Date: Thu Mar 15, 2001 6:54am
Subject: "Mary, Eschatological Icon of the Church"

14-Mar-2001 -- Vatican Information Service

GENERAL AUDIENCE: "MARY, ESCHATOLOGICAL ICON OF THE CHURCH"

VATICAN CITY, (VIS) - The theme of John Paul II's catechesis for today's general audience, held in the Paul VI Hall, was: "Mary, Eschatological Icon of the Church." As he entered the hall, the Pope passed slowly through the atrium and the center aisle, stopping frequently to greet those present.

In his catechesis the Pope observed that St. John's Book of Revelation tells of a Child's birth, which "represents the coming of the Messiah, and the woman evidently personifies the people of God, both the biblical Israel and the Church. ... Against Mary and the Church rises the dragon representing Satan and evil. ... Mary, her Son, and the Church, represent the seeming weakness and smallness of love, truth, and justice. Against them is unleashed the enormous destructive energy of violence, deceit, and injustice."

"The time of distress, persecution and trial," he continued, "is not, therefore, indefinite: at the end liberation will come and it will be the hour of glory."

John Paul II affirmed that, "contemplating this mystery in a marian perspective, we can state that 'Mary, at the side of her Son, is the most perfect image of freedom and of the liberation of humanity and of the universe'."

"We fix, then, our gaze upon Mary," the Pope added, "icon of the pilgrim Church in the desert of history, but stretched out towards the glorious goal of the heavenly Jerusalem."

The Pope concluded the catechesis: "In her glorious Assumption into heaven Mary is the image of the creature called by the risen Christ to attain, at the end of history, the fullness of communion with God in the resurrection for a blessed eternity. For the Church which often feels the weight of history and the siege of evil, the Mother of Christ is the luminous emblem of a humanity redeemed and transformed by the grace that saves."

During a brief ceremony at the end of the audience, the Holy Father received from BMW Italy a gift of a BMW 740i Protection and eight BMW C1 models for his use and that of Vatican City State.

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02/22/01

Grace Mizzi had this posted on the MMP forum:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/pope010221_cardinals.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,273441-412,00.shtml

two great links to read all about the 44 cardinals.

Let us remember them daily in our Prayers.

Who are the 44 Cardinals?

VATICAN CITY, FEB 21, 2001 (VIS) - Following are the names of the 44 new cardinals created by Pope John Paul II in this morning's consistory as well as the titular or diaconate churches he assigned to them:

1. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops: Title of Most Holy Twelve Apostles.

2. Cardinal Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: Diaconate of Holy Mary of the Stairs.

3. Cardinal Agostino Cacciavillan, president of APSA (Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See): Diaconate of the Holy Guardian Angels at Citta Giardino.

4. Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, president of the Prefecture of the Economic Affairs of the Holy See: Diaconate of St. Eustache.

5. Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education: Diaconate of St. Nicholas in Prison.

6. Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, C.F.M., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints: Diaconate of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

7. Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, secretary general of the Committee of the Great Jubilee: Diaconate of the Most Merciful Father.

8. Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejia, archivist and librarian of Holy Roman Church: Diaconate of St. Jerome of Charity.

9. His Beatitude Ignace Moussa I Daoud, prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches: Patriarchal See of Antioch of the Syrians.

10. Cardinal Mario Francesco Pompedda, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature: Diaconate of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Via Ardeatina.

11. Bishop Walter Kasper, emeritus of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity: Diaconate of All Saints in Via Appia Nuova.

12. Cardinal Antonio Jose Gonzalez Zumarraga of Quito, Ecuador: Title of Our Lady "in via".

13. Cardinal Ivan Dias of Bombay, India: Title of Holy Spirit at Ferratella.

14. Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo of Sao Salvador da Bahia, Brazil: Title of St. Gregory the Great at Magliana Nuova.

15. Cardinal Pedro Rubiano Saenz of Bogota, Colombia: Title of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

16. Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick of Washington, U.S.A.: Title of Saints Nereus and Achilleus.

17. Cardinal Desmond Connell of Dublin, Ireland: Title of St. Sylvester in Capite.

18. Cardinal Audrys Juozas Backis of Vilnius, Lithuania: Title of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Via Gallia.

19. Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa of Santiago de Chile, Chile: Title of Our Lady of Peace.

20. Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., of Tegucigalpa, Honduras: Title of Our Lady of Hope.

21. Cardinal Bernard Agre of Abidjan, Ivory Coast: Title of St. John Chrysostom in Monte Sacro Alto.

22. Cardinal Louis-Marie Bille of Lyon, France: Title of St. Peter's in Chains.

23. Cardinal Ignacio Antonio Velasco Garcia, S.D.B., of Caracas, Venezuela: Title of Santa Maria Domenica Mazzarella.

24. Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne of Lima, Peru: Title of St. Camillus de Lellis.

25. Cardinal Francisco Alvarez Martinez of Toledo, Spain: Title of Holy Mary, Queen of Peace in Monte Verde.

26. Cardinal Claudio Hummes, O.F.M., of Sao Paulo, Brazil: Title of St. Anthony of Padua in Via Merulana.

27. Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, C.SS.R, archbishop major of Ernakulam-Angamaly of the Syro-Malabars, India: Title of St. Bernard at the Baths.

28. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., of Buenos Aires, Argentina: Title of St. Robert Bellarmine.

29. Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo, patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal: Title of St. Anthony in Campo Marzio.

30. Cardinal Severino Poletto of Turin, Italy: Title of St. Joseph in Via Trionfale, pro hac vice titolo presbiterale.

31. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, Great Britain: Title of Holy Mary above Minerva.

32. Cardinal Edward Michael Egan of New York, U.S.A.: Title of Sts. John and Paul.

33. His Beatitude Stephanos II Ghattas, C.M., patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts.

34. Cardinal Jean Honore, emeritus of Tours: Title of Holy Mary of Health at Primavalle.

35. Cardinal Roberto Tucci, president of the Administrative Committee of Vatican Radio: Diaconate of St. Ignatius of Loyola at Campo Marzio.

36. Cardinal Leo Scheffczyk of the archdiocese of Munchen und Freising: Diaconate of St. Francis Xavier at Garbatella.

37. Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J., professor emeritus of Fordham University of New York, U.S.A.: Diaconate of the Most Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in Via Lata.

38. Cardinal Marian Jaworski of Lviv of the Latins, Ukraine. 39. Cardinal Janis Pujats of Riga, Latvia: Title of St. Sixtus.

40. Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, major archbishop of Lviv of the Ukrainians: Title of St. Sophia in Via Boccea.

41. Cardinal Johannes Joachim Degenhart of Paderborn, Germany: Title of St. Liborius.

42. Cardinal Julio Terrazas Sandoval, C.SS.R., of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia: Title of St. John the Baptist of Rossi.

43. Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, O.F.M., of Durban, South Africa: Title of St. Brancis of Assisi in Acilia.

44. Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz, Germany: Title of St. Leo I. .../DIACONATE:TITULAR CHURCHES/... VIS 20010221 (850)

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02/14/01

From: "joycelang"
Date: Tue Feb 13, 2001 6:38pm
Subject: "Shroud of Secrecty: The Story of (Masonic) Corruption within the Vatican

From: "kcole"

Subject: Follow-up to Michael Brown on New Book About Masons in the Vatican

This book is entitled "Shroud of Secrecy: The Story of (Masonic) Corruption Within The Vatican". If 1% of this book is true, we should all be on our knees for John Paul II daily or more frequently, as he, Jesus, and Mary, and our prayer have to be the only ones holding The Church together!!! The corruption is so thick, they could use a "spiritual Elliot Ness" to root out all the evil and fill the jails. It's like Clinton in Rome..."The book's release gave the public its first look at the direct testimony of a group of high-ranking Vatican prelates regarding the vices, corruption, and intrigues of the Roman Curia" (the top 30 surrounding the Pope through which he governs the Roman Catholic Church). The book's "critical purpose: to denounce the corruption that afflicts the Church and to promote a radical renewal based on morality and disclosure."

Page 180: "During these proceedings, it was revealed that more than $ 100 million had been laundered through the Vatican for ignoble Masonic ends and that the curious death of the son of one of the principal actors, Roberto Calvi, who was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London, was likely a casualty of criminal activities."..."The Pope hadn't even recovered from the shocking questions directed at him when on , September 12 (1994), the weekly publication (Il Mondo) published a list of 121 names of Vatican representatives and important prelates affiliated with the Masons."

Pages 186-7: "When the press broke the story, the powerful P2 Lodge (masonic) was headed by master Licio Gelli in conjunction with Michele Sindona, Roberto Calvi, and Umberto Ortolani, who were all Catholics and Masons implicated in the Ambrosian Bank scandal. The Church was accused of laundering money through the Institute for the Work of Religion and the Ambrosian Bank. In 1992, investigations showed the bank was missing $1.3 billion. The money was traced to accounts owned by the Vatican. (see Glossary) Rumors abounded when Pope John Paul I, who had vowed to end Vatican corruption, was found dead in his bed after serving only one month as Pope." The masonic "trojan horses have the keys to the Vatican vault very much like Greenspan, nothing federal, no reserves hold the power for the US monetary system...Looks to me like many trials for treason are in order and excommunicating masons should be high on the list!!! The masons' political, economic, religious, social, military, educational, and international penetration is pervasive.

The books is available for a $25 donation from RCF Inc., P. O. Box 109, Petersburg, Illinois 62675-0109. Other resources include: "The Changing Face of the Priesthood: A Reflections on the Priest's Crisis of Soul" by Fr. Donald B. Cozzens; "Hope of the Wicked" by Ted Flynn; A record or audio from the 60s by Myron Fagan re: The Illuminati (the masons); "Treason: The New world Order by Gurudas; "Who's Who of the Elite" by Robert Gaylon Ross, Sr., and "The Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church" by Malachi Martin.

This is like the Bush election where only saturation prayer can make a difference and where God's Light can sort the wheat from the chaff. We certainly do not need another Inquisition, but a discerning weeding process to rid Our Church of evil.

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02/13/01

Taken from Grace Mizzi, MMP Forum

Holy Father�s Address to Roman Rota - "God Himself Is the Author of Marriage"

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 12, 2001 .- On Feb. 1, the Holy Father received the prelate auditors, officials and advocates of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota for the opening of the new judicial year. Here is a translation of his address, which was given in Italian.

1. The opening of the new judicial year of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota offers me an appropriate occasion to meet you once again. In greeting all present with affection, I am particularly pleased to express to you, dear Prelate Auditors, officials and advocates, my heartfelt appreciation of the prudent and strenuous work you devote to the administration of justice in the service of this Apostolic See. With professional skill you endeavour to safeguard the sanctity and indissolubility of marriage and, in short, the sacred rights of the human person in accordance with the age-old tradition of the Rotal Tribunal.

I thank His Excellency the Dean for voicing and expressing your sentiments and fidelity. His words fittingly allowed us to relive the Great Jubilee which has just ended.

2. Families, in fact, were among those who played a leading role during the Jubilee days, as I pointed out in the Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte (cf. n. 10). There I recalled the risks to which the family institution is exposed, stressing that "this fundamental institution is experiencing a radical and widespread crisis" (n. 47). Among the most difficult challenges facing the Church today is that of a pervasive culture of individualism, which tends, as His Excellency the Dean put it so well, to limit and restrict marriage and the family to the private sphere. Therefore, I think it appropriate this morning to revisit several themes that I dwelt on in our previous meetings (cf. Addresses to the Rota, 28 January 1991: AAS, 83, pp. 947-953; and 21 January 1999: AAS, 91, pp. 622-627), to reaffirm the traditional teaching about the natural dimension of marriage and the family.

The Church's Magisterium and canonical legislation abound with references to the natural character of marriage. In Gaudium et spes the Second Vatican Council, after first stating that "God himself is the author of marriage and has endowed it with various benefits and ends" (n. 48), addresses several problems of conjugal morality by referring to "objective criteria drawn from the nature of the human person and of his acts" (n. 51). For their part, both of the Codes I promulgated affirm in their definition of marriage that the "consortium totius vitae" is "by its very nature ordered to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children" (CIC, can. 1055; CCEO, can. 776, 1).

This truth, in the climate created by an ever more marked secularization and a thoroughly privatistic approach to marriage and the family, is not only disregarded but openly challenged.

3. Many misunderstandings have beset the very idea of "nature". The metaphysical concept, referred to by the Church documents cited above, has been particularly neglected. There is a tendency to reduce what is specifically human to the cultural sphere, claiming a completely autonomous creativity and efficacy for the person at both the individual and social levels. From this viewpoint, the natural is merely a physical, biological and sociological datum to be technologically manipulated according to one's own interests. This opposition between culture and nature deprives culture of any objective foundation, leaving it at the mercy of will and power. This can be seen very clearly in the current attempts to present de facto unions, including those of homosexuals, as comparable to marriage, whose natural character is precisely denied.

This merely empirical conception of nature makes it radically impossible to understand that the human body is not something extrinsic to the person, but constitutes, along with the spiritual and immortal soul, an intrinsic principle of that unitary being which is the human person. This is what I explained in the Encyclical Veritatis splendor (cf. nn. 46-50: AAS, 85 [1993], pp. 1169-1174), where I stressed the moral relevance of this doctrine, so important for marriage and the family. In fact, one can easily search in false spiritualities for an alleged confirmation of what is contrary to the spiritual reality of the marital bond.

4. When the Church teaches that marriage is a natural reality, she is proposing a truth evinced by reason for the good of the couple and of society, and confirmed by the revelation of Our Lord, who closely and explicitly relates the marital union to the "beginning" (Mt 19: 4-8) spoken of in the Book of Genesis: "male and female he created them" (Gn 1: 27), and "the two shall become one flesh" (Gn 2: 24).

The fact, however, that the natural datum is authoritatively confirmed and raised by Our Lord to a sacrament in no way justifies the tendency, unfortunately widespread today, to ideologize the idea of marriage -- nature, essential properties and ends -- by claiming a different valid conception for a believer or a non-believer, for a Catholic or a non-Catholic, as though the sacrament were a subsequent and extrinsic reality to the natural datum and not the natural datum itself evinced by reason, taken up and raised by Christ to a sign and means of salvation.

Marriage is not just any union between human persons that can be formed according to a variety of cultural models. Man and woman experience in themselves the natural inclination to be joined in marriage. But marriage, as St Thomas states so clearly, is natural not because "it results by necessity from natural principles", but because it is a reality "to which one is inclined by nature, although it comes about through free will" (Summa Theol., Suppl., q. 41, a. 1, in c.). Any opposition, therefore, between nature and freedom or between nature and culture is extremely misleading.

In examining the historical and contemporary reality of the family, there is frequently a tendency to emphasize the differences in order to relativize the very existence of a natural plan for the union of man and woman. The more realistic observation, however, is that, along with the difficulties, limitations and deviations, man and woman have always had a profound inclination in their being which is not the result of their own creativity and which, in its basic features, fully transcends historical and cultural differences. The only way, in fact, that the authentic richness and variety of all that is essentially human can come to light is through fidelity to the requirements of one's nature. In marriage too, the desirable harmony between the diversity of expressions and the essential unity is not only conjectural, but is guaranteed by living in fidelity to the natural requirements of the person. Christians, moreover, know that for this task they can count on the strength of grace, which is capable of healing nature wounded by sin.

5. The "consortium totius vitae" requires the reciprocal self-giving of the spouses (CIC, can. 1057, 2; CCEO, can. 817, 1). But this personal self-giving needs a principle to specify it and a permanent foundation. The natural consideration of marriage shows us that husband and wife are joined precisely as sexually different persons with all the wealth, including spiritual wealth, that this difference has at the human level. Husband and wife are united as a man-person and a woman-person. The reference to the natural dimension of their masculinity and femininity is crucial for understanding the essence of marriage. The personal bond of marriage is established precisely at the natural level of the male or female mode of being a human person.

The scope of action for the couple and, therefore, of their matrimonial rights and duties follows from that of their being and has its true foundation in the latter. In this way, therefore, man and woman, by virtue of that most unique act of will which is marital consent (CIC, can. 1057, 2; CCEO, can. 817, 1), freely establish between themselves a bond prefigured by their nature, which now represents for both of them a true vocational path on which to live their own personhood as a response to God's plan.

The ordering to the natural ends of marriage -- the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring -- is intrinsically present in masculinity and femininity. This teleological characteristic is crucial for understanding the natural dimension of the union. In this sense, the natural character of marriage is better understood when it is not separated from the family. Marriage and the family are inseparable, because the masculinity and femininity of the married couple are constitutively open to the gift of children. Without this openness there could not even be a good of the spouses worthy of the name.

The essential properties, unity and indissolubility, are also inscribed in the very being of marriage, since in no way are they laws extrinsic to it. Only if marriage is seen as a union involving the person in the realization of his natural relational structure, which remains essentially the same throughout his personal life, can it withstand the changes of life, the efforts and even the crises through which human freedom often passes in living its commitments. But if the marital union is thought to be based only on personal qualities, interests or attractions, it obviously is no longer seen as a natural reality but as a situation dependent on the current perseverance of the will in relation to the continuance of contingent facts and feelings. Certainly, the bond is caused by consent, that is, by an act of the man's and the woman's will, but this consent actualizes a power already existing in the nature of man and woman. Thus, the indissoluble force of the bond itself is based on the natural reality of the union freely established between man and woman.

6. These ontological premises have many consequences. I will limit myself to pointing out those that are particularly important and relevant to the canon law of marriage. Thus, in the light of marriage as a natural reality we can easily grasp the natural character of the capacity to marry: "All who are not prohibited by law can contract marriage" (CIC, can. 1058; CCEO, can. 778). No interpretation of the norms on the incapacity for consent (cf. CIC, can. 1095; CCEO, can. 818) would be correct if it were to make that principle useless in practice: "The science of law", Cicero said, "must be drawn from man's inmost nature" (Cicero, De Legibus, II).

The norm of canon 1058 cited above becomes even clearer if we keep in mind that by its nature the marital union involves the masculinity and femininity itself of the married couple; therefore it is not a union that essentially requires unusual characteristics in the contracting parties. If that were the case, matrimony would be reduced to a factual integration of persons and their characteristics, and its duration would also depend only on the existence of a no better determined interpersonal affection.

To a certain widespread mentality today this view may seem to conflict with the demands of personal fulfilment. What is difficult for this mentality to understand is the very possibility of a true marriage that has not succeeded. The explanation is found in the framework of an integral human and Christian vision of life. This is certainly not the moment to dwell on the truths that shed light on this question: in particular, the truths about human freedom in the present condition of fallen but redeemed nature, about sin, forgiveness and grace.

It will be enough to recall that even marriage does not escape the logic of Christ's Cross, which indeed requires effort and sacrifice and involves pain and suffering, but does not prevent, in the acceptance of God's will, complete and authentic personal fulfilment in peace and serenity of spirit.

7. The very act of marital consent is best understood in relation to the natural dimension of the union. For the latter is the objective reference-point by which the individual lives his natural inclination. Hence the normality and simplicity of true consent. To present consent as the following of a cultural model or one of positive law is not realistic and risks needlessly complicating the investigation of matrimonial validity. It is a question of seeing whether the persons, in addition to identifying each other's person, have truly grasped the essential natural dimension of their married state, which implies, as an intrinsic requirement, fidelity, indissolubility and potential fatherhood/motherhood as goods that integrate a relationship of justice.

"Even the most profound or subtle science of law", Pope Pius XII of venerable memory warned, "could not identify another criterion for distinguishing between just and unjust laws, between the mere legal right and the true right, than the criterion which can already be perceived by the light of reason alone from the nature of things and of man himself, the criterion of the law written by the Creator in the human heart and expressly confirmed by Revelation. If law and juridical science do not wish to renounce the only guide that can keep them on the right path, they must recognize "ethical obligations' as valid objective norms for the juridical order too" (Address to the Rota, 13 November 1949: AAS, 41, p. 607).

8. In drawing to a close, I would like to dwell briefly on the relationship between the natural character of marriage and its sacramentality, seeing that there have been frequent attempts since Vatican II to revitalize the supernatural aspect of marriage which include theological, pastoral and canonical proposals that are foreign to tradition, such as the attempt to require faith as a prerequisite for marriage.

Shortly after the start of my Pontificate, following the Synod of Bishops on the family which discussed this topic, I addressed it in Familiaris consortio, writing in 1980: "The sacrament of Matrimony has this specific element that distinguishes it from all the other sacraments: it is the sacrament of something that was part of the very economy of creation; it is the very conjugal covenant instituted by the Creator" (n. 68: AAS, 73, p. 163). Consequently, the only way to identify the reality that was linked from the beginning with the economy of salvation and that in the fullness of time is one of the seven sacraments of the New Covenant in the proper sense is to refer to the natural reality presented to us by Scripture in Genesis (1: 27; 2: 18-25). This is what Jesus did in speaking about the indissolubility of the marital bond (cf. Mt 19: 3-12; Mk 10: 1-2), and what St Paul did in explaining the nature of the "great mystery" which marriage has "in reference to Christ and the Church" (Eph 5: 32). Matrimony, moreover, while being a "sign signifying and conferring grace", is the only one of the seven sacraments that is not related to an activity specifically ordered to the attainment of directly supernatural ends. For the ends of marriage are not only predominantly but properly "by its very nature" the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring (CIC, can. 1055).

A different viewpoint would consider the sacramental sign to consist in the couple's response of faith and Christian life; thus it would lack an objective consistency allowing it to be numbered among the true Christian sacraments. To obscure the natural dimension of marriage, therefore, with its reduction to a mere subjective experience, also entails the implicit denial of its sacramentality. On the contrary, it is precisely the correct understanding of this sacramentality in the Christian life which spurs us to a new estimation of its natural dimension.

On the other hand, to introduce requirements of intention or faith for the sacrament that go beyond that of marrying according to God's plan from the "beginning" -- in addition to the grave risks that I mentioned in Familiaris consortio (n. 68, loc. cit., pp. 164-165): unfounded and discriminatory judgements, doubts about the validity of marriages already celebrated, particularly by baptized non-Catholics - would inevitably mean separating the marriage of Christians from that of other people. This would be deeply contrary to the true meaning of God's plan, in which it is precisely the created reality that is a "great mystery" in reference to Christ and the Church.

9. Dear Prelate Auditors, officials and advocates, these are some of the reflections I wanted to share with you to guide and support your valuable service to the People of God. Upon each of you and your daily work I invoke the special protection of Mary Most Holy, Mirror of Justice, and cordially give you my Apostolic Blessing, which I gladly extend to your relatives and to the students of the Studio Rotale. [Translation by L'Osservatore Romano]

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