Peruvian cardinal calls for family-friendly legislation

Lima, Peru, Sep 18, 2008 / 11:23 am

The Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, renewed calls this week for “legislation that respects the human nature of the family” and said a home centered on the cross is a home that is strong, united and stable.

According to a report by the Fides news agency, the Peruvian cardinal said, “Schools should be a complement and not an adversary to the family.”  “And legislation should respect the human nature of the family, not only in the sacramental dimension but in the natural dimension of the complementarity of man and woman that creates that nuclear society,” the cardinal said.

During the celebration of the National Day of the Family at the Cathedral of Lima, Cardinal Cipriani said, “A family that has the cross in the center is a family that will be strong, stable and united.”  He also reiterated the indissolubility and permanence of marriage.

Marital crisis occurs when spouses flee from the cross, the cardinal said.  The cross is lived out together in mutual surrender and daily sacrifice for the raising of children, that is, in that love that is nourished in the measure in which selfishness is extinguished. “A marriage without the cross will be destroyed, a family without the cross will decay,” he said.

“The logic of the cross does not come from our way of thinking, from what the media says or what the majority thinks. It comes from a heart that looks upon Christ,” the cardinal stated.