84-year-old Pope Benedict XVI this week gave his annual State of the World speech, in which he warned, again, that the traditional family—that is, marriage between a man and a woman who shun contraception and never divorce (or at least never remarry)—is under assault from, well, people who aren’t that.
That the definition of family might evolve and, like a language, add variations and idioms and special usages in order to accommodate its vast potential was not under consideration. Contributors to the family’s demise threaten “human dignity and the future of humanity itself.” The Pontiff also spoke on economic issues, deploring unfairness and inequality in the contemporary global landscape.
