Ireland
United for Life welcomes our new Pope Francis.
Media
and pundits who were hostile in pushing for a Pope, by secular opinion poll or
diktat of the ignorant, who would abandon Church teaching and go chasing after
the secular moral fashions of the world will be distraught, scattered, silenced
and very disappointed by the election of Pope Francis 1.
The
new Holy Father has great devotion to Our Lady, has a decades- long record of
supporting the sanctity of human life, traditional marriage, Gospel support of
the vulnerable, the poor and regard for the dignity and worth of human life.
On
September 1 2009 - the feast of St. Raimondo Nonnato, the patron of expectant
mothers and the unborn – he said, during mass, to “defend life from conception
to its natural end”. He also added that “to really promote the culture of life
means also supporting the existence of these unborn children, in all phases of
their childhood.”
He
said in 2007 that abortion is a “death sentence for the unborn, we are not in
agreement with the death penalty.” He also denounced euthanasia and assisted suicide, calling it
a “culture of discarding” the elderly.
As
Cardinal he presented a statement in 2007 that we should commit ourselves to
“Eucharistic coherence”, that is we should be conscious that people cannot
receive Holy Communion and at the same time act or speak against the
commandments, in particular, when abortion, euthanasia, and other serious
crimes against life and family are facilitated. The responsibility applies
particularly to legislators, governors and health professionals.
Pope
Francis states that “being disallowed Holy Communion was a consequence for
those who facilitated in an abortion”.
In
2005 he said, “Defend the unborn
against abortion even if they persecute you, calumniate you, set traps for you,
take you to court or kill you. No child should be deprived of the right to be
born, the right to be fed and the right to go to school.”
At
this watershed time of pushing for decriminalisation of abortion and
introducing abortion legislation in Ireland, all politicians, legislators and
health professionals who claim to be Catholic should listen to and understand
exactly what Pope Francis is saying.
