P R A Y I N G W I T H T H E C H U R C H
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INTENTION : |
That every national and international institution may strive to guarantee respect for human life from conception to natural death.
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I have come so that they may have life, and have it to the full, is Jesus' saying to those who are his (Jn.10:10). The God of life has revealed himself on our earth to lead all his sons and daughters to fullness of life. Faithful to the Master's teaching, the Church has always defended the life of human persons, from its beginning, before birth, to its natural end. To ensure this respect for human life is the Pope's concern in this month's intention.
Not all groups or organisations are coherent in their struggles to defend life. Some proclaim themselves great defenders of human rights, and indeed do praiseworthy work, but fail when it comes to defending the rights of the most defenceless, the unborn. They advocate the unacceptable thesis that abortion is a woman's right over her own body. The right to be born is the primary and most fundamental of rights, not subject to the mother's arbitrary decision. On occasion, the same groups support euthanasia, which is a way of approving the dubious right to kill.
On the other hand, there are those who are energetic and active in the struggle against abortion or euthanasia, with great zeal for the Church's teaching, but keep silence about violations of the rights of the poor, and other grave social injustices. Some of these groups in certain developed countries have also supported and maintained the unjustifiable war against Iraq. This approach is not faithful to the view of the Church's magisterium, which always supports peace and justice.
The figures for the damage to life at world level are horrifying: 45 million abortions per year, 2,000 million persons in poverty, 1,500 millions of whom do not even have access to drinking-water, 70 million refugees and displaced persons, 300,000 child soldiersˇK. and much more.
Coherence in defence of life from its beginning to its natural end goes on today to include defence of the environment. An attack on the habitat where life must be born and grow is an attack on life itself.
The Pope's concern this month constitutes a call to the national and international social institutions to exercise their mission of promoting life for the benefit of their peoples. It calls for the united efforts of all the social agencies to counteract the forces of those who sow death in the world.
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