Pope pledges to
defend faith against fashion
By REUTERS from the
NYTimes on the Web, May 8, 2005
ROME -- Pope Benedict pledged
on Saturday to follow the strict line of his predecessor and defend traditional
Catholic teachings from "fashionable" ideas that threaten to destroy the faith.
In his first sermon at St John's in Lateran, his cathedral as the Bishop of
Rome, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger confirmed expectations that he would
maintain Pope John Paul's conservative stance on issues such as homosexuality
and abortion.
A pope's duty, he said, "is to ensure the word remains present in its greatness
and resounds in its purity so that it is not shattered by constant changes in
fashion."
The Church is battling moves in many Western countries toward policies such as
allowing gay marriage and euthanasia. The Pope made clear he would stand
firm against anything that weakened traditional teachings.
"(A pope) must constantly bind himself and the Church to the obedience of the
word of God in the face of all the attempts to adapt it or water it down," he
told the packed congregation.
"That's what Father John Paul II did when faced by all such attempts which were
seemingly benevolent toward man.
"When faced with erroneous interpretations of freedom, he unequivocally
underlined the inviolability of the human being, the inviolability of human life
from conception until natural death."
"The freedom to kill is not a real freedom, but a tyranny that reduces the human
being to slavery," he added, in a clear condemnation of abortion and euthanasia,
and had to pause while the congregation broke into applause.
BISHOP OF ROME
Benedict's pontificate has already been marked by a struggle between the
traditions of the Church and more liberal attitudes, notably in Spain which
passed a law allowing gay marriages, a move which bishops told Catholics to
defy.
Large crowds greeted the Pope as he arrived, standing up in an open-top
limousine, at the huge cathedral next to Rome's ancient city wall in the evening
sunshine.
The packed congregation applauded as he walked to the altar to be ceremoniously
cloaked in the vestments and mitre of the Bishop of Rome -- the last formal step
in his becoming Pope.
The Pope, who has repeatedly stressed his humility after becoming the spiritual
leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, said his role was that of a
servant, not a sovereign.
"The Pope is not an absolute sovereign whose thoughts and wishes are law.
On the contrary, the ministry of a pope is to be the guarantor of obedience to
Christ and his word," he said during a lengthy sermon.
"His power is not above, but at the service of, the word of God," said the
78-year-old Pontiff.
After the mass, the Pope's motorcade traveled a short distance to another one of
Rome's major churches, St Mary Major where he prayed at an icon of the Virgin
Mary.
He was met by Cardinal Bernard Law who was appointed archpriest there last year
by Pope John Paul after being forced to resign as archbishop of Boston over a
sexual abuse scandal.
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