ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Archbishop Lucas, Archbishop of Omaha,
Archbishop Zimowski, President of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers,
Dear brother Priests,
Dear Friends and all associated with the Pope Paul VI Institute, especially you,
Dr. and Mrs. Hilgers,

I am grateful for the invitation to celebrate, here in the Archdiocese of Omaha, this opening Mass of the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction. I greet you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and express my good wishes to every member of the Institute community, and, in a particular way, to the founder and director of the Institute, Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers.

Saint Gregory the Great, whose memorial we celebrate today, was renowned for his expertise in pastoral care. Already in the sixth century, he taught that married couples are to rejoice as they live their day-to-day lives, because they communicate, in the midst of daily realities, the everlasting goodness of the things of God (Pastoral Care, III. XXVII). Saint Gregory the Great understood that married couples, according to their state in life, help fulfill those words of Saint Paul, proclaimed only a few moments ago:  “To bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).

These words also express the purpose and mission of the Pope Paul VI Institute. Today, the Church responds with deep gratitude for the perseverance in a solemn commitment and a noble work of all those responsible for the Institute and its splendid mission. You carry out your role with generous readiness, resolute determination and enthusiastic fidelity. Your hard work draws its purpose from the  respect owing to the gift and the treasure of the child from the first moment of conception―a respect which finds its center of gravity in the recognition of the fundamental and essential right to life of the child in the womb. You remind society of the gift inscribed in the very nature of husband and wife. Your vocation is to foster the gift; you yourselves are stewards of the gift. Your work is centered on the full and complete meaning of human life, on the sanctity of marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and of the vocation to fatherhood and motherhood. This is the manner in which the Institute has, for twenty-five years, collaborated “to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ.”

We not only celebrate twenty-five years of pastoral service and support; we also honor twenty-five years of prophetic witness. Your efforts stand in stark contrast to some of the negative signs of the times. Modern society so often fails to grasp the meaning of the human person, the meaning of marriage, the meaning of fatherhood and motherhood and of the child. The fast-track lifestyle of consumerism, of pleasure-seeking and of “using the other”―all this chases after the myth of immediate satisfaction. Many people of good will follow the trends and attitudes of society without a second look. Modern man has been enticed to chase after every kind of pleasure, pursue the latest fashions, own the shiniest and fastest car and amass the highest profit margin, as if the one with the most expensive lifestyle somehow wins in the end.

And modern man seeks to do all of this in the midst of having a family and children. In that scenario, the pressure mounts so high, so quickly, that something has to give. Painfully, it is often marriage and the family that are forced to bear the wounds of modern man’s seemingly insatiable search for more and more profit and pleasure. The contraceptive mentality, in vitro fertilization, surrogacy and artificial insemination all fail to account for the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human sexuality. These interventions and attitudes particularly disregard the mystery of womanhood. The fast pace of society blurs the importance of God’s promise. Society finds itself in a deep malaise, and instead of abandoning the frivolous search for more and more things, it abandons instead the commitment to marriage and the family. This is a primary symptom of our deep cultural crisis. Our time is characterized by a standoff between superficial individualism and the profound community of life and love: marriage and the family.

Unfortunately, good people so often buy into a way of life that is not only painful and confusing, but also harmful and destructive to them and their deepest fulfillment. The prevalent contemporary attitude wields considerable influence. The one thing it cannot do is heal the very pain it so often inflicts. Numerous people emerge from the ways of the world wounded and in distress. They feel adrift, as if their life has little meaning. There is only one way to be disentangled from the troubling array of errors and painful distortions. The world chases things. But we seek to follow Christ.

The Pope Paul VI Institute follows Christ and leads to Christ so many of  those who suffer at the hands of the world. As Christians, we seek the light of Christ and we seek “to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ.” He alone is the starting point and goal of our every action. These other words of Saint Paul also take on particular meaning for this celebration: “Since we have this ministry through the mercy shown us, we are not discouraged” (2 Cor 4:1). The feverish pursuit of secularism is incapable of finding the one thing that truly fulfills the human person: the gift of self in love modeled on the Cross of Jesus. Jesus is the only One who truly knows us and will completely understand us. Marriage and family are the school of the sacrificial gift of self. A breakdown in marriage and the family leads to a fissure that extends to every aspect of society and eventually splits apart the common good. As Pope Benedict XVI has pointed out:“The good that the Church and society as a whole expect from marriage and from the family founded upon marriage is so great as to call for full pastoral commitment to this particular area. Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 29).

And, in the midst of all of this, the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction opens a new path. The Institute is a beacon of hope for married couples who experience difficulty conceiving a child, who know the pain of miscarriage or the pain of infertility, who, in the midst of concerns, worries and frustrations, seek to live out the teaching of the Church on the responsible transmission of human life, who want to learn to live true Natural Family Planning not just as a method, but as a lifestyle, who, through the joy of their marriage, desire “to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ.”

For twenty-five years the Institute has integrated ethical science, compassionate outreach, loving pastoral care, with an authentic theological anthropology faithful to the teaching of the Church. And all of this is presented in a practical, accessible way that furthers the Culture of Life and advances the Civilization of Love, step by step, day by day. Your work, dear friends, spells out the authentic grammar of love. This is the precious contribution of the Pope Paul VI Institute. The distinguished achievements of the Institute, centered on natural fertility regulation and reproductive medicine, constitute a solid advance in women’s health care. We celebrate twenty-five years of expert research, student training and international education programs, especially the benefits of the NaProTechnology and the Creighton Model Fertility Care System. Behind each of these programs are persons: patients, married couples, families, caregivers, consultants, providers and supporters, along with clergy and religious.

The Conference to take place during these days, co-sponsored by the Creighton University School of Medicine, begins so fittingly with the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. This moves us to grasp an abiding lesson that the Institute has sought to foster these twenty-five years. Are we not invited to see in the important work of the Institute the fruitfulness of the Eucharist? Pope Benedict XVI has beautifully pointed out that “The Eucharist, as the sacrament of charity, has a particular relationship with the love of man and woman united in marriage.”  And he adds: “A deeper understanding of this relationship is needed at the present time” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 27). Husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, so often have to stand beneath the Cross. What is so edifying is that the community of the Pope Paul VI Institute stands there also, with them, as does the whole Church, as we seek together “to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ,” and as we pray that the truth of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, may be communicated through all of us.  Amen.