8-Humans: The Pope on human genetic engineering

[GENET <genetnl@xs4all.be>]

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TITLE:  HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II
SOURCE: The Vatican
        http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/homilies/2002/
        documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20020818_beatification-krakow_en.html
DATE:   Aug 18, 2002

------------------ archive: http://www.gene.ch/genet.html ------------------


APOSTOLIC VOYAGE TO POLAND

Holy Mass and Beatifications:
Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski
Jan Balicki
Jan Beyzym
Sancja Szymkowiak

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II

Blonie, Krakow, 18 August 2002

[...]
3. From the beginning of her existence the Church, pointing to the mystery 
of the Cross and the Resurrection, has preached the mercy of God, a pledge 
of hope and a source of salvation for man. Nonetheless, it would appear 
that we today have been particularly called to proclaim this message before 
the world. We cannot neglect this mission, if God himself has called us to 
it through the testimony of Saint Faustina.

God has chosen our own times for this purpose. Perhaps because the 
twentieth century, despite indisputable achievements in many areas, was 
marked in a particular way by the "mystery of iniquity". With this heritage 
both of good and of evil, we have entered the new millennium. New prospects 
of development are opening up before mankind, together with hitherto 
unheard-of dangers. Frequently man lives as if God did not exist, and even 
puts himself in GodŐs place. He claims for himself the Creator's right to 
interfere in the mystery of human life. He wishes to determine human life 
through genetic manipulation and to establish the limit of death. Rejecting 
divine law and moral principles, he openly attacks the family. In a variety 
of ways he attempts to silence the voice of God in human hearts; he wishes 
to make God the "great absence" in the culture and the conscience of 
peoples. The "mystery of iniquity" continues to mark the reality of the 
world.

In experiencing this mystery, man lives in fear of the future, of 
emptiness, of suffering, of annihilation. Perhaps for this very reason, it 
is as if Christ, using the testimony of a lowly Sister, entered our time in 
order to indicate clearly the source of relief and hope found in the 
eternal mercy of God.

The message of merciful love needs to resound forcefully anew. The world 
needs this love. The hour has come to bring Christ's message to everyone: 
to rulers and the oppressed, to those whose humanity and dignity seem lost 
in the mysterium iniquitatis. The hour has come when the message of Divine 
Mercy is able to fill hearts with hope and to become the spark of a new 
civilization: the civilization of love.
[...]



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| European NGO Network on Genetic Engineering |
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