Pope Benedict XVI reportedly lashed out against laws that he said threaten the family and social order, saying none "can overturn that of the Creator." "No law made by man can overturn that of the Creator without dramatically affecting society in its very foundation," said the pope, according to the I-Media news agency, which reports on Vatican affairs in French.
The pope's remarks to a delegation attending a conference on "natural law" at the Pontifical Lateran University came as Portugal moves to liberalise abortion and Italy plans to grant legal status to unwed couples.
"Weakening the family is punishing society," he told the delegation. Natural law "has rules that supersede all human laws (and) does not allow for derogations by anyone."
Natural law has "concrete applications" such as protecting human life from conception to its natural end, and the institution of marriage between a man and a woman, Benedict said.
"Awareness of natural law is inscribed in our very being," he said. "The law inscribed in our nature is the true guarantee offered to everyone to be able to live freely and in dignity."
The Vatican II Council of the 1960s "reaffirmed that the institution of marriage is established by divine order, and therefore this sacred bond for the well-being of spouses, children and society" cannot be severed, he said.
