The Day for Life celebrated on Sunday October 5th
is intended to be a day dedicated to raising awareness about the meaning and
value of human life at every stage and in every condition.
There was considerable disappointment among pro-life people,
that the issue of abortion was ignored when the Catholic Bishops’ statement for
this years Day for Life was published, bearing in mind that it is just over a
year since the Irish Government legislated for abortion and the statement was
issued almost simultaneously
with the issue of the Government’s abortion regulations.
It was therefore a pleasant surprise to find that the new
Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin made a separate statement as reported in the
Irish Independent.
According to the Independent article;
The Catholic primate has warned the Government that his church will continue to campaign for "a society without abortion"Speaking in St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh on the catholic church's Day for Life, Archbishop Eamon Martin described the last year's abortion legislation as "unnecessary" and "medically flawed".Referring to last month's publication of guidelines on the legislation, he said these confirmed that abortion was now prescribed as an answer to a mother's suicidal feelings, "despite all the medical evidence to the contrary".He said a mother in crisis needed every possible support and the very best of care, as did her unborn child, and not abortion."The church will continue to call for a society without abortion which loves and cares for all life equally and does everything possible to protect the life of both the mother and her unborn child - even in the most delicate and traumatic of circumstances," he said.The new head of the Catholic church warned people to beware of "the misguided mercy of euthanasia" whereby a right to die could easily give way to "a duty to die." Referring to a letter sent by Pope Francis for the Day for Life, in which the Pontiff criticised society's throwaway culture, the Archbishop said human life is treated like a commodity, which is dispensable, as if it had a 'use by' date.
