“When the Churches or the church communities enter the public arena, expressing reservations or recalling principles, this is not a form of intolerance or interference, since these expressions are only aimed at enlightening people’s consciences, enabling them to act freely and responsibly”. This was specified this morning by Benedict XVI, as he received in audience in the Vatican the participants in the meeting promoted by the European People’s Party (PPE). As he rejoiced for "the structured dialogue" covered by the Constitutional Treaty between European institutions and Churches and religious communities, the Pope explained that what the Church has most at heart is "the protection and promotion of human dignity”. Hence some "principles that are not negotiable” and particularly topical today: “the protection of life at every stage, from conception to natural death; the recognition and promotion of the family based on marriage between man and woman, and its protection from the attempt to legally equate it to forms of union that are dramatically different which in fact contribute to destabilise it; the protection of the parents’ right to educate their children”. Principles that, concluded Benedict XVI, "are inscribed in man’s nature and as such are shared by all men”.
