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Cardinal Celestino Aós of Santiago expands "Ratzinger's List" at religious ceremony attended by Chile's president
By Xavier Le Normand | Chile
Chile celebrates major "patriotic" holidays over the course of two days each September -- Independence Day on the 18th, followed by Armed Forces Day the day after.
And cathedrals throughout this overwhelmingly Catholic country in South America usually begin the celebrations with a large Te Deum service, which draws political and civil authorities.
Cardinal Celestino Aós, who leads the Archdiocese of Santiago in the nation's capital, held his first such celebration since getting his red hat last November.
Chile's President Sebastián Piñera was on hand for the celebration.
And since the country is currently in the midst of constitutional reform, the 76-year-old Capuchin Franciscan cardinal took the opportunity to spell out a number of "non-negotiable values" he believes the new text should safeguard.
"We give thanks for all those who seek to respect and protect non-negotiable values," said the Spanish-born cardinal.
He then explained that these include the following:
"Respect and defense of human life from conception to its natural end; the family based on marriage between a man and a woman; freedom for parents to choose the model and institution of education for their children; promotion of the common good in all its forms; and state subsidiarity which respects the autonomy of organizations and cooperates with them."
Cardinal Aós argued that it was all the more necessary to list these points today since, "in a democracy, the question of knowing what corresponds to the law of truth, what is truly just and can become law, is not so obvious".
It was a clear, though tacit reference to efforts currently underway in Chile to legalize euthanasia and same-sex marriage.
Cardinal Aós was, in fact, repeating a policy that was developed in 2002 by another cardinal -- Joseph Ratzinger, who was then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Once he became pope and took the name Benedict XVI, he (Ratzinger) continued to develop this theme in his 2007 apostolic exhortation Sacramentum caritatis.
"Catholic politicians and legislators and politicians, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature," he wrote.
"There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist," Benedict added, saying that bishops "are bound to constantly reaffirm these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them".
The Chilean cardinal expands the list
But Cardinal Aós expanded Ratzinger's list of "non-negotiable values" by adding the subsidiarity of the state.
Similarly, though without putting it on the same level as the other issues, he included protection of the environment.
"Today, the importance of ecology is indisputable," the cardinal said.
"We must listen to the language of nature and respond to it with coherence," he warned.
Chile held a referendum in October 2020, which resulted in favor of carrying out a constitutional reform.
Elections were then held last May to choose constituents to rewrite the Constitution.
They began work in early July, but are not expected to complete the new foundational text until 2022 at the earliest.
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