Lima, Peru, Jul 3, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, denounced the existence of a worldwide campaign that sells “damaged goods,” calling a relationship that is “not between a man a woman” marriage, and he warned that by legalizing homosexual unions, society is disfigured.
During a Mass marking the 36th anniversary of Ricardo Palma University, the cardinal commented on the recent legalization of homosexual unions en Spain.
According to Cardinal Cipriani, this is an example of what “Pope Benedict XVI calls ‘the dictatorship of moral relativism’.” “In today’s world, evil disguises itself as good, it is imposed on others, and woe to him who does not accept it!” the cardinal said.
Likewise, he expressed regret that a country of “enormous Christian tradition” such as Spain has approved “a form of pseudo-marriage that imposes a disfiguration on society, in the most pharisaical and hypocritical of attacks.”
The cardinal called on the faithful not to refer to relationships that “are not between a man and a woman” as marriage. “Call it what you want but don’t sell damaged goods, don’t traffic in that dictatorship of moral relativism in which there is nothing good, only opinions and trends of thought.”
“In an age in which technology and science are increasingly acute and do not allow for deceit, this worldwide campaign to sell damaged goods must be unmasked,” he warned. In this context, “when we speak of such important issues as marriage, life, the family, justice, truth, honor, that’s when we see the invasion of relativism, in which each person has his own truth,” the Cardinal said.
“We are not asking anybody to limit his or her knowledge or to feel obligated to accept truths which he or she may not know, but we do ask that the integrity of the human person, who is more than just matter, not be mutilated.”
”The university evidently has a role in transmitting knowledge” but it must not neglect “the moral dimension, which is not a limitation on scientific knowledge,” Cardinal Cipriani explained.
“I have never heard so much preaching on human rights, on respect for women, on uncared for children, on the value of democracy, and I have never seen so much trampling upon the family, marriage, women and children,” the cardinal said. “This is a hollow discussion that has no values and is based on pure trendy opinions!”