I have been involved in the front line against abortion for many years and I have been following all the editorials and articles in the local press on this subject. I see a pluralism of ideas and regret that some are not part of our traditional beliefs.
After the referendum in Italy was won by those in favour of abortion, St John Paul II was at the Gemelli Hospital recovering from the tragic attempt on his life in St Peter’s Square. A bishop there recalled that the Pope cried like a child saying: “How is it possible after all we have been saying?” The Pope had been a great defender of life and the unborn, but alas his voice was often a voice in the desert.
One of the reasons that voters in Italy favoured abortion is that while so much was said in bishops’ pastoral letters and in the Catholic press, there was no prevention strategy aimed at the wider public. People, even Catholics, were brainwashed by politicians and the media. The Church forgot that only a minority attend church on Sundays. This is very much the case among the younger generation of Italians.
When I was in Milan as the director of the International Centre for Family Studies I worked with the Family Commission of the Italian Bishops on the subject of abortion. Ten years before its legalisation, together with Bishop Pietro Fiordelli, the president of the Family Commission of the Italian Bishops (CEI), we formed a working group to propose a long- and short-term programme for the prevention of abortion.
We consulted scientific and professional people, while I suggested we should also listen to adolescents, women and married couples who went through the trauma of abortion. At times it was really moving to listen to the scientific experts and to these victims.
On the basis of these consultations we put together a bulky report with a programme for action for the prevention of abortion. This was presented to the Vatican and the CEI, but we never heard more than a simple thank you.
Then in the last remaining months before the referendum this report saw the light of day, but we believed it was too late. Again we prayed and worked for abortion prevention. Pastoral letters were issued continuously, and above all, Pope John Paul II spoke on the value of life nearly every day.
This often angered the left-wing media who were totally against the value of life, of the unborn and at the very core against the family. I went around with a team of doctors, midwives and couples in various dioceses to speak in favour of life. We were criticised because we showed a very moving scientific film on the foetus. Often we encountered protests and silent marches, which also included Catholics. Though our arguments were scientifically and legally correct, we had to work and pray hard.
First of all we were not in favour of a referendum, as we learned from the one about divorce. Politicians often resort to a referendum to shift their responsibility for the common good to the people. During the abortion referendum campaign, the masses, even believers, had their minds formed by the political parties and the media. They did not follow a well-formed and informed conscience, but were indoctrinated by others. This was very true in the case of young people, the vast majority of whom were non-Church goers.
Things might have gone differently if 10 years before we started a programme of prevention in schools, universities, the medical profession, and last but not least, families. Catholics then had only one or two television stations, so airtime was not easily granted. The day will come here in Malta when we will cry for not having set up a Catholic TV.
About two months ago a lady came to see me at the Dar tal-Kleru, (home for elderly clergy). She said: “Pardon me, but I have been wanting to meet you for many, many years. You do not know me, but if it were not for you I would never have been born.”
She gave me some details, and though I am nearly 90, my computer is in my brain (thank God). She said that her mother had got pregnant while she was a minor and was cast away from home like a leper, although her parents thought about a backstreet abortion. She was brought to the Cana Movement and I took her mother into a home. She was born and the mother readily accepted to give her up for adoption. She told me: “You gave me the best ever parents.” We both wept with joy!