No State can justify killing the innocent
22 May 1998
1.Welcome, dear Brothers and
Sisters, members of the Pro-Life
Movement. You have come to Rome from various Italian cities once again to
renew your “yes” to the fundamental
value of life and to give a voice to the many innocents whose right to be born
is jeopardized. I affectionately greet Bishop Elio Sgreccia, Vice-President of
the Pontifical Academy for Life, and the movement’s President, Mr. Carlo
Casini, whom I thank for his strong, beautiful words to me on behalf of you
all. I also greet all who in these years have actively worked to defend and
promote human life.
As I recalled in the Encyclical Evangelium vitae: “Humanity today offers
us a truly alarming spectacle, if we consider not only how extensively attacks
on life are spreading but also their unheard-of numerical proportion, and the
fact that they receive widespread and powerful support from a broad consensus
on the part of society, from widespread legal approval and the involvement of certain
sectors of health-care personnel” (n. 17).
With this profound sorrow we must
observe that these serious phenomena also occur in Italy, where in the last 20
years no less than three and a half million babies were killed with the
approval of the law, in addition to
those destroyed illegally. However, in view of these disturbing figures, our
presence, in large numbers and with great conviction, is an encouraging sign
which nourishes the hope that truth will triumph over the false justifications
given for abortion. The truth is that every human being has a right to life
from his conception until his natural end. For the faithful the hope that this
truth will prevail finds its basis in Christ, who died and rose again, and who
sends his Spirit into the world to instil courage and to raise up tireless
defenders and witnesses of truth and life.
2.Encouraging signs also come today
from those who observe the failure of
permissive abortion laws at the political level. Not only have they failed to
eliminate illegal abortion, but, on the contrary, they have contributed to the
growing decline in the birth rate and, not infrequently, to the degeneration of
public morality. These data highlight the urgent need for a commitment to the
promotion and defence of the family institution, the first resource of human
society, especially with regard to the gift of children and the affirmation of
women’s dignity. In fact, there are many who, in consideration of the dignity
of woman as a person, wife and mother, see permissive abortion laws as a defeat and humiliation for woman
and her dignity.
Another encouraging sign is your
work, dear members of the Pro-Life Movement: as a result of the widespread and
timely commitment of the Aid centres
you sponsor, it has been possible to save over 40,000 babies and to assist an
equal number of women. This promising result demonstrates that where concrete
support is offered, despite problems and influences which are sometimes
critical women are able to make the
sense of love, life and motherhood triumph within them.
Your praiseworthy commitment has had
a positive influence on the consciences of individuals, where often “the
eclipse of the sense of God and of man, with all its various and deadly
consequences for life, is taking place” (Evangelium
vitae, 24) and on the “moral conscience of society,” which “is responsible,
not only because it tolerates or fosters behaviour contrary to life, but also
because it encourages the culture of death, creating and consolidating actual
structures of sin which go against life” (ibid.).
The network of concern for unborn
life, which your Movement has been able to construct, attracting the attention
of political institutions and broad levels of society, lets us think that if
the action of so many volunteers, supported with more explicit solidarity, were
allowed in public health structures, it would achieve even greater results for
many innocent lives.
I hope that
parishes and Dioceses will treasure you experience in order to set up organized
structures for aiding the life not only of unborn children, but also of
adolescents, the elderly and people who are alone and abandoned.
3.Concrete help and widespread
educational activity, which involve the entire eccclesial community, must be
accompanied by political efforts for the full recognition of the dignity and
rights of the unborn child and for the revision of laws that legalize its
suppression. No human authority, not even the State, can morally justify the killing
of the innocent. This tragic transformation of a crime into a right (cf. Evangelium vitae, n. 11) is a sign of
the disturbing decadence of a society.
Actually, in addition to striking at
the law impressed by the Creator on the heart of every man, permissive abortion
laws express an incorrect form of democracy, present a reductive concept of
society and reveal a lack of commitment by the State to the promotion of
values.
Effective action in this area must,
therefore, aim at reconstructing a horizon of values, which translates into a
clear affirmation of the “right to life” in international charters and national
laws.
4.On the other hand, economic and
social progress cannot have a sure foundation and concrete hope if there is a
basic refusal to acknowledge the right to life. There is no future for a
society that is incapable of duly appreciating the wealth represented by a
newborn child and of valuing a woman’s vocation to motherhood.
As I recalled in the Encyclical Evangelium vitae, in the modern world
there is “a surprising contradiction. Precisely in an age when the inviolable
rights of the person are solemnly proclaimed and the value of life is publicly
affirmed, the same right to life is being denied or trampled upon, especially
at the more significant moments of existence: the moment of birth and the
moment of death” (n.18).
In view of such ambiguous positions,
I wish to stress that respect for life from its conception until natural death
is the essential issue in the modern social question. The lack of such respect
in developed societies has serious consequences in developing countries, where
pernicious anti-birth campaigns are still promoted, and it is especially
apparent in the area of artificial human procreation and the euthanasia debate.
5.Dear brothers and sisters of the
Pro-Life Movement, persevere in your courageous efforts! Every sacrifice and
every hardship will be compensated by the smile of the many children who,
thanks to you, can enjoy the priceless gift of life. I warmly encourage you to
make every effort so that everyone’s right to life will be recognized and an
authentic democracy, inspired by the values of the civilization of love, will
be built.
I entrust each of you and all your
good projects to Mary, “Mother of the living”, and as I assure you of a daily
prayer, I gladly impart to you and your endeavours my Apostolic Blessing.