Pope Leo XIV Tells 40,000 in Lima That God Created Human Beings Male and Female, While Insisting on Equal Dignity
Pope Leo XIV addressed an estimated 40,000 people in Lima's Plaza de Armas on November 12, telling a meeting on the challenges and hopes of the Peruvian people that the human person must stand at the center of every social, economic and political organization, and that God created the human person male and female.
"God created the human person male and female. It is in this union alone that reciprocity and complementarity are expressed, giving rise to fatherhood and motherhood, filiation and fraternity, and everyone's commitment to a better society," the pope said. He added that human dignity requires that every child be conceived through natural means.
In the same address, Leo said living the truth of our identity as men and women does not justify an unequal sharing of household responsibilities or the subordination of one spouse to the other. He decried the persistence of machismo, manifested in fathers absent from family life and in abuse and violence against women, and said the contribution of women to every sphere of society and the Church is indispensable.
He also paid tribute to Peru's cultural, linguistic, historical and regional plurality, rejected expressions that classify or judge people by appearance, origin or social condition, and urged that society's wealth and resources not benefit only a few but contribute to the development of all. The address came on the first full day of his visit to Peru, after meetings with the country's bishops.
(Source: Holy See)
Source: Holy See
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：教宗良十四世（资料图）。Edgar Beltrán / The Pillar 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons，本站档案图复用。 / Photo: Pope Leo XIV (file photo). By Edgar Beltrán / The Pillar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; GSM archive reuse.
