We have not yet had the opportunity of studying it in depth and will report on it more fully in due course. In the meantime we wish to
highlight two sections of the document which address pro-life and pro-family
issues:
66. The family is experiencing a profound cultural crisis,
as are all communities and social bonds. In the case of the family, the
weakening of these bonds is particularly serious because the family is the
fundamental cell of society, where we learn to live with others despite our
differences and to belong to one another; it is also the place where parents
pass on the faith to their children. Marriage now tends to be viewed as a form
of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified
at will. But the indispensible contribution of marriage to society transcends
the feelings and momentary needs of the couple. As the French bishops have
taught, it is not born “of loving sentiment, ephemeral by definition, but from
the depth of the obligation assumed by the spouses who accept to enter a total
communion of life”.[60]
[60] CONFÉRENCE DES ÉVÊQUES DE FRANCE, Conseil Famille et
Société, Élargir le mariage aux personnes de même sexe? Ouvrons le débat! (28
September 2012).
213. Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care
with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenceless and
innocent among us. Nowadays efforts are made to deny them their human dignity
and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws
preventing anyone from standing in the way of this. Frequently, as a way of
ridiculing the Church’s effort to defend their lives, attempts are made to
present her position as ideological, obscurantist and conservative. Yet this
defence of unborn life is closely linked to the defence of each and every other
human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and
inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development. Human beings
are ends in themselves and never a means of resolving other problems. Once this
conviction disappears, so do solid and lasting foundations for the defence of
human rights, which would always be subject to the passing whims of the powers
that be. Reason alone is sufficient to recognize the inviolable value of each
single human life, but if we also look at the issue from the standpoint of
faith, “every violation of the personal dignity of the human being cries out in
vengeance to God and is an offence against the creator of the individual”.[176]
214. Precisely because this
involves the internal consistency of our message about the value of the human
person, the Church cannot be expected to change her position on this question.
I want to be completely honest in this regard. This is not something subject to
alleged reforms or “modernizations”. It is not “progressive” to try to resolve
problems by eliminating a human life. On the other hand, it is also true that
we have done little to adequately accompany women in very difficult situations,
where abortion appears as a quick solution to their profound anguish,
especially
when the life developing within them is the result of rape or a
situation of extreme poverty. Who can remain unmoved before such painful
situations?
when the life developing within them is the result of rape
or a situation of extreme poverty. Who can remain unmoved before such painful
situations?
[176] JOHN PAUL II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Christifideles Laici (30 December 1988), 37: AAS 81 (1989), 461.
The Vatican has just released the text of the new Apostolic
Exhortation, ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ (‘The Joy of the Gospel’) by Pope Francis.
