Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 65(2) May 2015
Being Male and Being Female
Rt. Rev. Philip A. Egan Ba, STL, PHD.
Bishop of Portsmouth.
January 2015
On
17th November 20 , a remarkable three-day Colloquium was held in Rome,
organised by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).
The topic was “The Complementarity of Man and Woman” and the Colloquium
incorporated six short movies on the mystery of sexual complementarity in
marriage. Speakers sought to demonstrate how marriage and the family are
of fundamental importance to the happiness and future of humanity. The 350
participants comprised theologians, social scientists, marriage
counsellors, psychologists, family lawyers, media experts, bishops and
pastors from 23 countries and from different religious traditions.
Pope Francis opened the Colloquium, saying every child has a fundamental human right to be brought up by both a father and a mother. The abandonment of the traditional religious culture of family and marriage - a loving, monogamous, covenantal relationship of one man and one woman with the procreative purpose of raising children – has resulted in a moral and sexual revolution that has brought “spiritual and material devastation to countless human beings, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.”
These themes recurred. Cardinal Kurt Koch, from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, spoke about creation, that God did not want man to be alone and so he created woman; the two complement each other; they are different yet equal in dignity. Pastor Johann Arnold, founder of the Lutheran Brüderhof Communities, discussed the need children have for role models, especially in marriage. Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali asserted how the public doctrine of marriage, which is good for children, good for the spouses and good for society, has been abandoned in the West. In addition, Mormon, Islamic, Jewish and Hindu scholars also spoke, each from their own tradition lauding marriage and family life.
There was remarkable unanimity. Dr. Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the UK and the Commonwealth, noted how in Britain today, secular ideologies and gender politics have contributed much to the abandonment of the traditional meaning of marriage. 42% of marriages now end in divorce; 47% of children are born to unmarried parents; women head up 92% of single parent households; the average length of cohabitation is just 2 years, and 1 million children are growing up in the UK without knowing their fathers.
"Every
child has a fundamental right to be brought up by both a father and a
mother" Pope Francis“We cannot not do something,” said Rick Warren, the evangelical Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose-Driven Life. “Sadly today we all know marriage is [being] dishonoured. It is dismissed as an archaic man-made tradition; it is denounced as an enemy of women; it is discouraged as a career-limiting choice; it is demeaned in movies and television, and it is delayed out of fear that it will limit personal freedom.” Instead, he argued, we must affirm the authority of God’s Word. Truth is truth, no matter how many doubt it. “I may deny the law of gravity,” he said, “but that does not change gravity.” We must publicly recognise and celebrate healthy marriages. We must engage every single media outlet available to promote marriage. We must constantly announce the benefits of marriage and convince people with supporting data. We must show how children raised with both a mother and a father grow up healthier, happier, and stronger, and are less likely to fail in school, abuse drugs or go to jail. They experience less distress, less depression and less suicidal tendencies. We must point out how marital breakdown disproportionately hurts the poor. Single parenting has never been a viable economic unit. Children who grow up without their mothers and fathers are more likely to live their entire lives in poverty. Men who marry and stay married have fewer illnesses; they live longer than single men; they earn more, and they amass more net worth than single men with a similar education.
The Colloquium’s purpose was to develop a global, interreligious solidarity in favour of marriage for the common good. The danger of course with such a project is that a pro-life, pro-family message is easily hijacked for political purposes. Today, many identify those who actively argue for marriage and the family with social conservatism, as in the US “culture wars”. Yet some speakers, in presenting afresh the ideals, went to great lengths to acknowledge the real challenges married couples face today, to express sensitivity to those in serious difficulties and to recognise for instance the needs of those with same-sex attraction. The sexual revolution is causing poverty. Gender politics is not the ‘natural’ way of life. The demise of traditional marriage and family life damages the vulnerable members of society, notably children and the elderly.
The Colloquium was planned before the Synods on marriage and the family, but its message is relevant in these months before the October 2015 Synod on the Vocation and Mission of the Family. Yet behind the Synods and the Colloquium lies the hot-button issue of our time, theological anthropology. What is Man? What does it mean to be human? The Church has faced some major controversies in history, but today, in the twenty-first century, the historic issue is anthropology: What does it mean to be human?
What is natural? What does it mean to be male and to be female? What is the value of the body? The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity and the doctrine about Human Being are like two pillars forming the central ‘diptych’ of the Catholic Faith.
In popular culture, two polar-opposite anthropologies compete for ascendancy. Are humans higher animals or transcendent persons? Are they polymorphous machines or creatures with limits? Are people objects to be manipulated for pleasure, economic gain, power, or subjects to be respected, with meaning, purpose, dignity? In the twenty-first century, a battle is raging between two different versions of what it means to be human. One is the offspring of Enlightenment philosophies coupled to a caricature of science and human freedom. The other is the fruit of divinely revealed faith, coupled to the wisdom of the ages and genuine advances in human knowledge. The first promises liberation yet fails to deliver. It leads to totalitarianism, nihilism and a throwaway society. The latter is the natural way of life. It is the Way of the Cross, but the Way that offers true freedom, responsibility and salvation.
What today’s world needs more than ever is Jesus Christ and the gift of faith. This should be the prayer of every Catholic medic: that God will give abundantly the grace of Evangelii Gaudium, the joy of the Gospel, so that all might receive the teaching of the Church and be inspired by authentic Christian witness.
Rt. Rev. Philip A. Egan BA, STL, PhD Bishop of Portsmouth
January
2015
REFERENCES
- The Colloquium has a website:
www.humanum.it.
For another account of its speakers and their themes, see www.catholicworldreport.com (January 2015) - For the full text of Pope Francis’s Address, see Vatican Website