Cardinal Müller: attacks on marriage tantamount to suicide for society

November 19, 2014

Western society is “standing on a precipice” because of the failure to defend marriage, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) said in an interview with the National Catholic Register.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller said that attacks on marriage amount to “a kind of suicide of humanity itself, especially in the secularized West.” He stressed the importance of protecting marriage and the family, saying that “we must stop and not make that final step from which there is no return.”

The German cardinal expresses satisfaction with the results of the 3-day Vatican conference sponsored by the CDF, which had focused on the complementary roles of man and woman. He pointed to the broad agreement among representatives of 14 different religious traditions, united in support of matrimony.

Cardinal Müller said that the Vatican conference filled a vital need, because public discussions of marriage today usually concentrate on problems rather than on the fundamental strengths of the institution of marriage. Ordinarily, he said:

The discussion is about sex or failed relationships, but not about why men and women are drawn together, how they complement and fulfill one another. This is what the vast majority of people are interested in: how to make marriage better, stronger, more fulfilling and life-giving.

The cardinal said that this week's conference had been planned for more than a year, and was not directly related to the discussions on family at the Synod of Bishops. But he voiced his confidence that the issues raised at the "Humanum" conference would influence the bishops' thinking during the next year as they prepare for the next Synod meeting.

 

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Further information:

• Cardinal Müller: Attacks on Marriage Are a ‘Suicide of Humanity’ (National Catholic Registser)