This is perhaps my favorite topic of all time. I've often debated, should I have ever been in a position to give a homily of what I would speak. Most likely, given sufficient courage, I'd hit on the topic that "Can does not equal Should", in other words, because you can do something does not mean you must do something or even that you should do it. Our Western society has been blinded by the blazing progress of science and has lost the ability to understand when restraint is more important than progress. Science for its own sake is meaningless to the point of being dangerous; it is science for the sake of the advancement of humanity that brings meaning and honor. My quote-a-day from Pope John Paul II gives this tidbit:
This reminds us of the attention we must pay to youth, to their intellectual and professional formation and, more generally, to their human, moral and spiritual education. It is especially important to teach them the value of life, of all life, from conception to its natural end, for life is God's gift and we are not its masters. Many technical procedures lead a large number of our contemporaries to think that what is scientifically feasible is also morally acceptable, especially regarding the techniques of human reproduction. Science, which is a valuable help, can never be the sole criterion of moral discernment merely because it opens up new possibilites, the power of man over man, and, in a certain way, a mastery of living things. -- Address to the New Ambassador of Canada to the Holy See, October 12, 2000
Tags:
|