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Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 18, Number 15, April 19, 1991 Cardinals call for universal battle in defense of human life by Maria Cristina Fiocchi The extraordinary consistory which gathered 112 of the 141 an accident or an illness, and whenit is close to the end." cardinals, including those over 80 years of age, around Pope Cardinal Ratzinger-the prefect of the Congregation for John Paul II to examinethe ''present threatsto humanlife, with theDoctrine of the Faith, the highest body on doctrinal mat­ special attention to abortion," and the challenge of the sects, ters-.-went on to say that such meat1s "are unleashed against concluded with a unanimous appeal to the Pontiff to "solemnly life in the process of being born, tJu'ough abortion (it turns reaffinn" in a document the Roman Catholic Church's "teach­ out that there may be 30-40 million in the world per year). ings on the value of human life and its inviolability." The Even to facilitate abortion, billions have been invested in majority of the cardinals recommended that this should be an perfectingabortion-inducing pills (Ru 486)." Behind the log­ encyclical. In their final docutnent afterthe April 4-6 consisto­ ic of death, he said, "there is also hatred against man, and ry, the cardinals saidthat today life is threateneda "in terrible more deeply, the loss of God. Where God disappears, the way not only by the degradation of nature but by physical absolute dignity of human life disappears too." violence, both individual and organized; by the exploitation of According to the German cardinal, the culprits are those the poor and of children; by the drug trade; by the fact that states and international bodies which "make themselves the entire populations .are abandoned to extennination by starva­ backers of abortion and euthanasia, vote up laws authorizing tion, while the anns trade is encouraged; and by wars." They them, andmake the meansavailable tothose who follow them." deplored "the enonnous growth in the number of abortions, On the same topic, Cardinal Margerot said that in the south­ which legalization, farfrom slowing down,has actuallye ncour­ western area of the Indian Ocean, many countries have legal­ aged," andthe "more recentattempts to legitimize euthanasia," izedcontraception, sterilization, and abortion. He charged that andappealed to politicians to "beable to bringlegislative initia­ in developingcountries the Intematiomti MonetaryFund condi­ tives into accord with the irrefutable duty of respecting human tions its economic aid on birth control. The Church sees the life." The leaders of theCatholic Church criticized the prevail­ abortion problem not merely from the standpoint of individual ing culture, which lacks moral sensitivity, denies respect for morality, but also, and above all, from thatof social political life, and no longer recognizes theprinciples of mttural law. morality, because, as Cardinal Bernard Law, the archbishop of Boston, stated, "Theright to life has beenposed in theconsisto­ Historical first ry as a fundamental humanright, andhence the principle of the . Both the concluding appeal of the consistory and the inviolability of the human personconception frQm to deathis a individual speeches of cardinals from every comer of the problem of socialjustice and human rights... globe projected into the Vatican sessions a historical dimen­ sion of enormous importance, not only for believers but for The new anti-life morality all people living in our time. Perhaps it was the first time Among thecauses of oppositionto life, CardinalRatzing­ that a meeting of the College of Cardinals confronted topics er indicted "the very concept of moralitywhich is widespread which deal not so much with the internal realities of the today." For him, "an individualistic vision of freedom, un­ Roman Church, as with the condition into which humanity derstood as the absolute right to self-determination on the is drifting at this moment in time: a sick humanity which basis of one's own convictions, i� often associated with a helplessly witnesses the predominance of economic power merelyformal idea of conscience. �tis no longer rooted in the over people who, the more weak and defenseless they are, classic conception of moral conscience. In that conception, themore they arecrushed. which belongs to the whole Christian tradition, conscience In his keynote speech,Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger charged is the capacity to open oneself up tp the appeal of objective, that "a veritable war" is being waged by "the strong against universal truth which is equal for all, which everyone canand the weak, a war which aims at eliminating the handicapped, must seek. On the other hand, in tlte innovative conception, those who are give trouble, and even simply those who are clearly of Kantian origin, conscience is disconnected from poor and 'useless.' With the complicity of governments, its constructive relation to a conteJlt of moral truth, and re­ colossal means are used against human beings, at the dawn duced to a mere formal condition of morality: It would only of their life or when their life has become vulnerable due to involve the subjective goodness of intention." EIR April 19, 1991 International 51 © 1991 EIR News Service Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. Cardinal Biffi, the archbishop of Bologna, added that ants"-roughly one-quarter Italy's. pennissive abortion laws cause "a dangerous confusion" be­ The Church's strong stancb against abortion-but also tween what is considered legal and what is ethically right. against contraception, because, 1,Cardinal Ratzinger put it, "a "From the pastoral standpoint, if killing an innocent is an great many of the chemical cont!raceptives actually act as anti­ extremely grave evil, this loss of capacity to distinguish be­ fertility drugs, that is as abortiI es, without women realizing tween good and evil is even worse." Biffi said that today this"-hasalready irked the liberaIswho are obsessed by demo­ humanity looks "surprisingly similar to that humanity with­ graphic growth, and who for debdes have been preaching the out Christ of whom St. Paul spoke." The primary and most elimination of mouths in order td "save theplanet." radical evil of the present de-Christianization of society is The future encyclical "on tde defense of human life" will not "the loss of faith," but rather "the loss of reason." Here also have to provide economid and scientific arguments on is where the fundamental role of the Church emerges, to the falsehood of the myth of 0 erpopulation. The two major l point out the pathway to truth for mankind, he said. speeches by Cardinal Francis Arinze and by the Prefect of the Congregation for the PropJgation of the Faith, Cardinal The myth of overpopulation 10zef Tomko, described the alI arming phenomenon of the • In their final document, the cardinals asked for a new growth of fanatical cults and the challenge they present to approach to the demographic problem. The cardinal from the Church. Nicaraguan Cardihal Miguel Obando y Bravo Angola, Alexandre do Nascimento, at the press conference underscored that in Central and South America, the spread held afterward at the Holy See's press room, added that the of sects has been backed by butside groups interested in consistory reiterated that there is no overpopulation problem, finning up their political and ecpnomic power in those coun­ but rather one of underdevelopment: "My country, for exam­ tries.The cardinal named the Rockefeller Foundation, which ple, has an area of 1,246,700 square kilometers (four times already in 1969 drafted a report bn how to reduce the Catholic that of Italy), and it has a population of 15 million inhabit- Ch=h', presence in South Atrica o man the full dignity of his vJ�tion. ll Rise with him, hu­ manity ofour time! Then you be ableto welcome life beginn The Pope's Easter message with love, from its first g until its naturalending you will vigorously prevent th . exploitation of the poor. You will say no tothe lucrative s trade,which you'will Pope John Paul II's annual Easter Urbi et Orbi (to the replace with plans of genuine olidarity, at the complete city and theworld) message was deliveredMa rch 31 from serviceof man. Lend an ear, h manity of our time, to the 1 the balcony ofSt. Peter's Basilicaafter celebrating E aster long-ignored aspiration oppof essed peoples such as the morning mass in St. Peter's Square. Thefo llowing are Palestinians,the Lebanese, the urds, whoclairnright the excerptsfr om the Vatican's English translation. to exist with dignity, justice, d freedom, legitimate re­ quests repeated in vain for y , Do not fear to allow .., , 5) Yes , this is a day of light, strength, and hope, every person the free professi n of his or her religious which makes the darkness menacing the Earth recede. belief.I amthinking also ofyou dearCatholic c ommunity Darkness which also recently has cast a shadow over the of Albania, who have remain d faithful to the Gospel whole human community: When a choice was made of of Christ; take courage anew,. go forward to seasons of' ('aggressionand the violation of international law; when it abundant fruit! ' was presumed to solve the tensions between the peoples 7) From this place, the he of the Church, to which by war, the sower of death; when from the Baltic to the come'cries of pain and implo . g appeals for help, I ad­ Me(literranean and in other areas of the world there rose dressmyself to yoti, theleaders ofnations, i n this difficult dHin vain the voice of the peoples , yearning for respect hour of history: Listen to the voice of the poor! Only for their own identity and their own history; when not upon an international order i which law and freedom everything was done to face the inexorablethreat of fam­ are indivisible for all can the ociety we all hope for be ine which has afflicted whole peoples in Africa, as for founded.

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