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Wednesday March 8, 2006
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Pope Benedict Calls on Christians to Defend the Dignity of Disabled People
by Hilary White
ROME, March 8, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Benedict XVI has called on Christians to defend the lives and dignity of disabled people at all stages of life. In a message to the Brazilian bishops endorsing their “Fraternity and Disabled People,” campaign for Lent, the Pope said, “To defend life in all its phases, from the beginning until the end, is a right and duty of all, which the Church will never cease proclaiming.”
The Pope wrote in a letter sent to Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, archbishop of Sao Salvador da Bahia and president of the Brazilian bishops' conference, “Human beings, irrespective of the conditions in which they live and the capacities they have, possess unique and extraordinary worth from the very beginning of their existence to the moment of natural death.”
The rights of the disabled are under increasing threat as the medical community moves towards an increasingly utilitarian model in medical ethics. Disabled rights activists are alarmed at the international push towards acceptance of euthanasia based on “quality of life” criteria and abortion for even minor foetal abnormalities.
In his message, the Pope recalls “the commandment to charity, especially toward people suffering some form of disability.”
"Even when the problems [of disabled people] touch their minds or their sensorial and intellectual capacities, they remain fully human, with the sacred and inalienable rights that belong to humans.”
“Indeed, human beings, irrespective of the conditions in which they live and the capacities they have, possess unique and extraordinary worth from the very beginning of their existence to the moment of natural death,” the Pope continued.
“To defend life in all its phases, from the beginning until the end, is a right and duty of all, which the Church will never cease proclaiming,” he added.
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