Addressing the board of directors of Italy’s Pro-Life Movement last Saturday week ahead of the 41st National Day for Life, Pope Francis said: “I appeal to all politicians, regardless of their faith convictions, to treat the defence of the lives of those who are about to be born and enter into society as the cornerstone of the common good. Voluntarily extinguishing life in its blossoming is, in every case, a betrayal of our vocation, as well as of the pact that binds generations together, which allows us to look forward with hope.
“Those who have been conceived are children of the whole of society. Their killing in huge numbers, with the endorsement of States, is a serious problem that undermines the foundations of the construction of justice, compromising the proper solution of any other human and social issue.”
‘This legislation is evil, pure and simple’
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, chairman of the US Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said: “Abortion has always been built on a lie. Today, the lie is switching from ‘abortion is a choice’ to ‘abortion is healthcare’. A law recently passed in New York not only legalises abortion essentially for any reason through all nine months of pregnancy but removes any protection for children born alive after abortion.
“This legislation is evil, pure and simple. And it shocks the conscience to see such evil legislation greeted with raucous cheers and standing ovations.
“It is sickeningly dishonest to claim that women’s lives or health depend on intentionally killing their children. This is especially true for late-term abortion, which always involves the purposeful destruction of a child which could have been born alive, with much less risk to the mother, had they both received real healthcare.”
‘We must build the future together’
Addressing the Global Conference on Human Fraternity in Abu Dhabi last Monday, Pope Francis said:
“True religious piety consists in loving God with all one’s heart and one’s neighbour as oneself. Religious behaviour, therefore, needs to be continually purified from the recurrent temptation to judge others as enemies and adversaries.
“Each belief system is called to overcome the divide between friends and enemies, in order to take up the perspective of heaven, which embraces persons without privilege or discrimination.
“There is no alternative: we will either build the future together or there will not be a future.”
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)