Initiatives designed to defend marriage and oppose abortion are essential elements in the building of the 
civilisation of love, Pope Benedict has said.
Speaking to an audience of social workers in Fatima on Thursday afternoon, he expressed “deep appreciation for all those social and pastoral initiatives which “were openly concerned to defend life and to promote the reconciliation and healing of those harmed by the tragedy of abortion”.
He added: “Initiatives aimed at protecting the essential and primary values of life, beginning at conception, and of the family based on the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, help to respond to some of today’s most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good.
“Such initiatives represent, alongside numerous other forms of commitment, essential elements in the building of the civilisation of love.”
His comments come after the Portuguese parliament passed a bill aimed at legalising same-sex “marrriages” in February with the support of the left-wing parties, which are in the majority.
President Anibal Cavaco Silva has until May 17 to decide whether to sign the bill into law or exercise his veto power. If the president vetoes the bill, the parliament is expected to override him.
The Pope said that, amidst the current socio-economic, cultural and spiritual context, studying the Church’s social doctrine “will make possible a process of integral human development capable of engaging the depths of the human heart and achieving a greater humanisation of society.”
In addition to intellectual knowledge, the Pope said, it is a matter of wisdom, “which can provide creativity, a sort of flavor and seasoning, to the intellectual and practical approaches aimed at meeting this broad and complex crisis.”
The Holy Father underlined his hope that Church institutions, working with all organisations from outside the Church, would “perfect their theoretical analyses and their concrete directives … (which are) capable of leading to that civilization of love, whose seed God has planted in every people, in every culture.”
“The many pressing requests which we receive for support and assistance from the poor and marginalised of society impel us to look for solutions which correspond to the logic of efficiency, quantifiable effects and publicity,” Pope Benedict added.
And he urged Catholic organisations in particular to exhibit their identity and to ensure the independence of Christian charitable activity from politics and ideologies, he told them that all services provided must “be crowned by projects of freedom whose goal is human promotion and universal fraternity.”