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Monday December 5, 2005
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Pope to Bishops: Make Everyone Understand the "Evil of the Crime of Abortion"
Emphasizes abortion "is also an act of aggression against society itself"
By John-Henry Westen
VATICAN, December 5, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a meeting Saturday, with the presidents of the Latin American Episcopal Commissions for the Family and Life, Pope Benedict XVI told the gathered bishops "it is necessary to help everyone to realize the intrinsic evil of the crime of abortion which, in attacking human life at its beginnings, is also an act of aggression against society itself."
Pope Benedict explained how, "also in the field of life, new attitudes are putting this fundamental right into question. ... The elimination of the embryo is being facilitated, as is its use in the name of scientific progress which, in not recognizing its own limits and not accepting all the moral principles that enable the dignity of the person to be protected, becomes a threat to human beings themselves."
The Pope observed how "in Latin America, as elsewhere, children have the right to be born and to grow up in the bosom of a family founded on marriage," and he emphasized how children are an expression of the wealth of a family. "Consequently," he said, "politicians and lawmakers, as servants of the social good, have the duty to defend the fundamental right to life, the fruit of God's love."
The Pope also repeated his call to pro-life action in a meeting with Denmark's new Ambassador to the Vatican, Sten Erik Malmborg Lilholt. "It is necessary to examine carefully any new social developments that emerge, even if they enjoy widespread support or appear to promise significant rewards," said the Pope. "The defense of life from conception to natural death, for example, and the stability of marriage and family life are goods that must be safeguarded in every society, however vocal the forces that may seek to undermine them. They form part of the objective moral order, and can never be discarded without gravely endangering the common good."
Addressing concerns such as artificial procreation and embryonic stem cell research, Benedict XVI continued, "Likewise, scientific and technological advances should always be evaluated according to sound ethical criteria, and nothing that threatens the inherent dignity of the human person should ever be tolerated. Only by faithful adherence to these unchanging truths can society create the conditions in which human beings may flourish and prosper."
See the full text of both Papal addresses:
http://212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/17515.php?in...
http://212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/17504.php?in...
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