Last Sunday was Pro-Life Day in Italy. With that in mind, Pope Francis chose for his
February “Urgent Prayer Intention” that the sacredness of human life be
recognized. At the end of his Angelus
Address he asked that “we pray for the children who are in danger of the
interruption of pregnancy, as well as for persons who are at the end of life —
every life is sacred! — so that no one is left alone and that love may defend
the meaning of life.”
From the beginning of his papacy Pope Francis has expressed his concern that all human life—from the womb to a natural death—be protected and honored. In his first Apostolic Exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” he wrote:
“Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenseless 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.”
He went on to link the unborn child’s right to life with all human rights, saying:
“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 defense of unborn life is closely linked to the defense 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.”
In his Encyclical on creation Pope Francis also wrote:
“Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?”
From the beginning of his papacy Pope Francis has expressed his concern that all human life—from the womb to a natural death—be protected and honored. In his first Apostolic Exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” he wrote:
“Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenseless 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.”
He went on to link the unborn child’s right to life with all human rights, saying:
“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 defense of unborn life is closely linked to the defense 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.”
In his Encyclical on creation Pope Francis also wrote:
“Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?”
“And I feel one thing I want to share with you all, the greatest
destroyer of peace today is the cry of
the innocent unborn child. For if a mother can murder
her own child in her womb, what is left for you and for me to kill each other? … I ask His Majesties here
before you all who come from different
countries, let us all pray that we have the courage to stand by the unborn child, and give the child an
opportunity to love and to be loved, and I think
with God's grace we will be able to bring peace in the world.”
As we pray with Pope Francis this month that all human life be recognized as sacred, we ask for hearts like the Heart of Jesus which saw each person as precious and died for all.
As we pray with Pope Francis this month that all human life be recognized as sacred, we ask for hearts like the Heart of Jesus which saw each person as precious and died for all.
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