Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and responsible for the Doctrine of Faith at the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate (CEM), offers Exaudi readers his weekly article titled “France adrift.”
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LOOK
The French Congress approved, by a large majority, to include in its Constitution the so-called right to abortion, considering it an achievement of social advances and cultural modernity. Many people have applauded this decision and hope that legislatures in more countries do the same. Others, however, both in France itself and in various places, have deplored it, because we consider it a setback in humanity. Having the constitutional right to kill an innocent and defenseless human being seems like a regrettable decline. Women may have the right to do what they want with their bodies, although this also has ethical limits, not only does their body come into play here, but another developing human being. We are reaching a degradation, since they applaud the imprisoning of someone who kills a dog, and they promote the free murder of a human being. Is a dog worth more than a person? Is that progress in humanity?
In several places, on the occasion of last March 8, International Women’s Day, a few of them, from very radical groups, financed by we don’t know who, painted and vandalized cathedrals and temples, as a sign of aversion to our permanent stance in defense of life from conception. All women are very respectable, and we must continue fighting for their dignity and claims to be recognized, but we must also defend the rights of unborn children.
Christians, in this and other matters, go against the current and, due to our moral position, inspired by the Word of God, they attack us. Jesus had already warned us: if we want to be his faithful disciples, we expose ourselves to suffering persecution, misunderstanding and aversion. If a believer decides to conform to the prevailing criteria in this world, contrary to divine commandments, he has preferred darkness to light.
DISCERN
Inspired by the divine command that orders not to kill, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, the human being must see his personal rights recognized, among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life” (2270).
“Since the first century, the Church has affirmed the moral malice of all induced abortions. This teaching has not changed; remains unchanged. Direct abortion, that is, intended as an end or as a means, is seriously contrary to the moral law” (2271).
“Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a serious offense. The Church sanctions this crime against human life with the canonical penalty of excommunication. Whoever seeks abortion, if it occurs, incurs latae sententiae excommunication (he excludes himself from the Church without the need for a canonical trial); that is to say, the person who commits the crime incurs it ipso facto (automatically), under the conditions provided by law. With this the Church does not intend to restrict the scope of mercy; what she does is manifest the seriousness of the crime committed, the irreparable damage caused to the innocent, to whom he is killed, to his parents and to the entire society” (2272).
“The inalienable right of every innocent human individual to life constitutes a constitutive element of civil society and its legislation: The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and political authority. These human rights are not subordinated to individuals or parents, and they are not a concession from society or the State: they belong to human nature and are inherent to the person by virtue of the creative act that gave rise to it. Among these fundamental rights, it is necessary to remember for this purpose the right of every human being to life and physical integrity, from conception to death.
When a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection that the civil order owes them, the State denies the equality of all before the law. When the State does not put its power at the service of the rights of every citizen, and particularly of those who are weaker, the very foundations of the rule of law are broken… The respect and protection that must be guaranteed, from its very conception, to whom it must be born, requires that the law provide appropriate criminal sanctions for any deliberate violation of its rights” (2273).
Since it must be treated as a person from conception, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for and medically assisted to the extent possible, like any other human being. Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, if it respects the life and integrity of the human embryo and fetus, and if it is oriented toward its protection or cure… But it will seriously oppose the moral law when it contemplates the possibility, depending on its results, of causing an abortion: a diagnosis that attests to the existence of a malformation or a hereditary disease should not be equivalent to a death sentence (2274).
ACT
Let us value and respect women more every day, and continue defending the life of those conceived at any stage of their gestation. The present and future of humanity is at stake in this!
