Pope, marking new year, reiterates support for traditional family

Published: 2008-01-02

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Ushering in the new year, Pope Benedict XVI said attempts to weaken the traditional family inevitably undermine social harmony and world peace. "The natural family, founded on marriage between a man and a woman, is the cradle of life and love and the first and indispensable teacher of peace," the pope said at a Mass Jan. 1, which the church marks as the World Day of Peace. The family thus constitutes the primary agency of peace, and attempts to deny or restrict family rights "threaten the very foundations of peace," he said. Later, at a noon blessing, the pope returned to the theme of the family and what he called its "strict connection" to social peace. He quoted from his World Peace Day message on the theme "The Human Family, a Community of Peace." "Whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community, national and international, since he weakens what is in effect the primary agency of peace," he said.

Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .