Pope Francis and Abortion

Last Thursday, the very day after some secular media manipulated the content of an interview with Pope Francis, he reiterated his clear position on abortion. Below I copy part of the address the Pope gave that day to Catholic gynecologists taking part in the meeting of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations. You can read the full address at this link: http://www.aciprensa.com/noticias/el-papa-ante-aborto-nuestra-respuesta-es-un-si-decidido-y-sin-vacilaciones-a-la-vida-26437/ and the interview that some media manipulated can be read in full at this link: http://www.aciprensa.com/entrevistapapafrancisco.pdf

“The first reflection I would like to share with you is this: today we are witnessing a paradoxical situation that has to do with the medical profession. On the one hand we see, and we thank God for it, the progress of medicine, thanks to the work of scientists who passionately and tirelessly devote themselves to the search for new cures. On the other hand, however, we also see the danger that the doctor may forget his own identity as a servant of life. Cultural disorientation has also attacked something that seemed an untouchable sphere: yours, medicine! Although by their nature they are at the service of life, the health professions are at times induced not to respect life itself. Instead, as the Encyclical Caritas in Veritate reminds us, ‘openness to life is at the center of true development. When a society moves toward the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man’s true good. If personal and social sensitivity toward the acceptance of a new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away. The acceptance of life strengthens moral fiber and makes people capable of mutual help’ (no. 28). The paradox can be seen in the fact that, while new rights, sometimes presumed rights, are attributed to the person, life is not always protected as the primary value and the primordial right of every human being. The ultimate goal of medical action is always the defense and promotion of life.

The second point: in this contradictory context, the Church appeals to consciences, to the consciences of all health care professionals and volunteers, and in a particular way to you gynecologists, who are called to cooperate in the birth of new human lives. Yours is a singular vocation and mission, which requires study, conscience and humanity… A widespread utilitarian mentality, the ‘throwaway culture,’ which today enslaves the hearts and minds of so many, comes at a very high cost: it demands the elimination of human beings, above all if they are physically or socially weaker. Our response to this mentality is a decisive and unhesitating ‘yes’ to life. ‘The first right of the human person is his life. He has other goods and some of them are more precious, but this one is fundamental, the condition for all the others’ (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Procured Abortion, 18 November 1974, 11). Things have a price and can be sold, but people have a dignity; they are worth more than things and have no price. Many times we find ourselves in situations where we see that what costs least is life. That is why attention to human life in its totality has in recent times become a real priority of the Church’s Magisterium, especially to the most defenseless life, that is, people with disabilities, the sick, the unborn, children and the elderly, who are the most defenseless. In the fragile human being, each of us is invited to recognize the face of the Lord, who in his human flesh experienced the indifference and loneliness to which we so often condemn the poorest, whether in developing countries or in wealthier societies. Every unborn child, unjustly condemned to be aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who even before he was born, and then just after his birth, experienced the world’s rejection. And every elderly person (I spoke of the child; let us move on to the elderly, another point!), and every elderly person, even if sick or at the end of his days, bears the face of Christ. They cannot be thrown away, as the ‘throwaway culture’ suggests! They cannot be thrown away!

The third aspect is a mandate: be witnesses and spreaders of this ‘culture of life.’ Being Catholic gives you a greater responsibility: first of all toward yourselves, in the effort to be consistent with your Christian vocation, and then toward contemporary culture, helping it to recognize in human life its transcendent dimension, the imprint of God’s creative work, from the first moment of conception. This is a task of new evangelization that often requires going against the current and paying a personal price. The Lord is counting on you, too, to spread the ‘Gospel of life’… Dear doctor friends, you who are called to care for human life in its initial phase, remind everyone, by your deeds and your words, that life is always, in all its phases and at every age, sacred and always of quality. And not because of an argument of faith (no, no) but of reason, of science! There is no human life more sacred than another, just as there is no human life qualitatively more significant than another. The credibility of a health care system is measured not only by its efficiency, but above all by its attention and love toward people, whose life is always sacred and inviolable. Never stop praying to the Lord and to the Virgin Mary for the strength to do your work well and to bear witness with courage, with courage (today courage is needed), to the ‘Gospel of life.’ Thank you very much.”