Cardinal Peter Turkson has said that “responsible parenthood” could “offer a solution” to the problem of climate change.
The Ghanaian cardinal, the Pope’s leading adviser on climate issues, told the BBC last week that the Church had never been against natural family planning (NFP), despite what was often suggested by secular media.
Speaking in Paris during the COP21 climate change conference the cardinal said that climate change was a looming ecological disaster.
At the UN Conference at Le Bourget, in the north of Paris, the cardinal suggested that “responsible parenthood” could help alleviate some of the impacts of climate change, including the lack of food in parts of the world where there was still hunger. He told the BBC: “Having more mouths to feed is a challenge for us to be productive also, which is one of the key issues being treated over here, the cultivation and production of food, and its distribution. The amount of population that is critical for the realisation of this is still something we need to discover, yet the Holy Father has also called for a certain amount of control of birth.”
Cardinal Turkson is thought to have played a major role in the drafting of Laudato Si’, the Pope’s encyclical on climate change. The 67-year-old is also considered to be papabile.
The BBC reported that Cardinal Turkson was “at pains to stress that artificial birth control methods such as the contraceptive pill were still beyond the pale as far as the Church was concerned”.
But later in the week Cardinal Turkson nonetheless clarified his comments, telling the Catholic news organisation Aleteia: “This has been talked about, and the Holy Father on his trip back from the Philippines also invited people to some form of birth control, because the Church has never been against birth control and people spacing out births and all of that. So yes, it can offer a solution.” The headline “is more exciting than the content itself” he said of the BBC report: “It’s not what happened.”
He noted that in the English-speaking world, “birth control” informally referred to artificial contraception. “Ordinarily, in a Church document, the expression they would have used is ‘responsible parenthood’. That’s the expression that’s normally used,” he said.
Archbishop embarks on 31-stop tour of diocese
Archbishop Leo Cushley has begun a 31-date tour to discuss the future of the Church within the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
“My big message is that the renewal and, yes, growth of the Catholic Church in our part of Scotland is very possible but only if we create vibrant Christian communities centred on Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist,” Archbishop Cushley said.
“That requires a realistic discussion as to how we best use the material and spiritual resources we currently have within each community including numbers of priests, parishioners and church buildings.” Archbishop Cushley aims to hold meetings in all 31 pastoral areas. The vision for the review is based on Archbishop Cushley’s pastoral letter “We Have Found the Messiah”, which was issued in Lent 2015. While the review process may lead to the merging of some parishes, the archbishop said no conclusions had yet been reached.
“I come into all of this with an open mind as to what the future holds for the Catholic Church in each area of the archdiocese – that’s why people should come along to these public meetings to make their view heard.”
Cardinal opens Holy Door
Cardinal Vincent Nichols opened the Door of Mercy in Westminster Cathedral on Sunday to mark the beginning of the Year of Mercy. The cardinal was joined by the Cathedral Chapters and the Chaplains of the Cathedral for the opening during Vespers, with the congregation invited to follow them through the Holy Door. Pope Francis launched the Jubilee Year of Mercy, which will end on November 20 2016, by opening a Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica on December 8.
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