Vatican criticizes couples in marriages 'willingly made sterile'

Published: 2006-06-06

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Couples who use natural family planning to have only one or two children allow "brief parentheses" in a marriage "willingly made sterile," said a new document from the Pontifical Council for the Family. The document, "Family and Human Procreation," was released in Italian June 6 and was issued to mark the 25th anniversary of the council's establishment. "Never before has the natural institution of matrimony and family been victim of such violent attacks," said the document, signed by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, council president. The cardinal said "radical currents" are not simply promoting acceptance of new models of the family, but actually are proposing them as positive alternatives to the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman open to having children. "Couples formed by homosexuals claim the same rights reserved to a husband and wife; they even claim the right to adoption," he said. While various factors are contributing to the problem, the document said, the root of the crisis is a lack of recognition of God as the creator of all human life.

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