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Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children

  • POPE FRANCIS

We need to develop a new synthesis capable of overcoming the false arguments of recent centuries.


baby in wombWhen we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities — to offer just a few examples — it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected.  Once the human being declares independence from reality and behaves with absolute dominion, the very foundations of our life begin to crumble, for "instead of carrying out his role as a cooperator with God in the work of creation, man sets himself up in place of God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature" (Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, May 1, 1991)....

When the human person is considered as simply one being among others, the product of chance or physical determinism, then "our overall sense of responsibility wanes" (Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the 2010 World Day of Peace)....

Human beings cannot be expected to feel responsibility for the world unless, at the same time, their unique capacities of knowledge, will, freedom, and responsibility are recognized and valued....

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 concem 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?  "If personal and social sensitivity toward the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away" (Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, June 29, 2009).

We need to develop a new synthesis capable of overcoming the false arguments of recent centuries.

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Acknowledgement

francisPope Francis. "Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children." Laudato Si (24 May 2015).

Reprinted with permission of Libreria Editrice Vaticana

 This excerpt appeared in Magnificat in January, 2018.

The Author

francis51smfrancis7smPope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 17 December 1936. He became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and a cardinal in 2011. He was elected Pope on March 13, 2013. He is the first pope to be a Jesuit, to come from the Americas, and to come from the Southern Hemisphere. He is the author of Laudato Si, Encountering Truth: Meeting God in the Everyday, The Joy of the Gospel: Evangelii Gaudium, The Church of Mercy, Walking with Jesus: A Way Forward for the Church, and Through the Year with Pope Francis: Daily Reflections.

Copyright © 2015 Libreria Editrice Vaticana