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Related Pages
Ending Abortion
Abortion Is the Overriding Issue:
More Church Teaching
Below is a compilation of magisterial teaching on abortion and the primacy
of the right to life. For an extensive collection of Church teaching on abortion,
see Priests for Life's Educational Resources area. There you'll see
what the Catechism, papal encyclicals, other Church documents, early Church
teaching, and other sources associated with the Magisterium all say about
abortion and the Gospel of Life:
Teachings
of the Magisterium on Abortion
http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisteriumteachings.html
Abortion: The Primary Issue According to Statements from the Pope and Bishops
The 1974 Declaration on Procured Abortion published by the Vatican's
Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated, "The first right
of the human person is his life. He has other goods and some are more precious,
but this one is fundamental -- the condition of all the others."
Pope John Paul II elaborates on this theme in his 1988 apostolic exhortation,
The Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in
the World (Christifideles Laici) in the following passage:
The inviolability of the person, which is a reflection of the absolute
inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the
inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly
made on behalf of human rights -- for example, the right to health, to home,
to work, to family, to culture -- is false and illusory if the right to life,
the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal
rights, is not defended with maximum determination...
In 1989, in their Resolution on Abortion, the US bishops stated, "At
this particular time, abortion has become the fundamental human rights issue
for all men and women of good will. ... For us abortion is of overriding
concern because it negates two of our most fundamental moral imperatives:
respect for innocent life, and preferential concern for the weak and
defenseless."
In The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae, 1995), Pope John Paul II
pointed out that there is a wide array of life issues and attacks on human
dignity about which we must be actively concerned. He then, however, points
to abortion and euthanasia as attacks of "another category" and of "extraordinary
seriousness." He explains what he means as follows:
It is not only that in generalized opinion these attacks tend no longer to
be considered as "crimes"; paradoxically they assume the nature of
"rights," to the point that the State is called upon to give them legal
recognition and to make them available through the free services of health-care
personnel. Such attacks strike human life at the time of its greatest frailty,
when it lacks any means of self-defence. Even more serious is the fact that,
most often, those attacks are carried out in the very heart of and with the
complicity of the family -- the family which by its nature is called to be
the "sanctuary of life" (n.11).
Also in The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae, 1995), Pope John Paul
II stated, "In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting
abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to 'take
part in a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law, or vote for it.'"
73, Gospel of Life
In 1998, the US Bishops issued Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge
to American Catholics. Paragraphs 21-23 of that document discuss the
relative importance of various issues as follows:
-
Bringing a respect for human dignity to practical politics can be a daunting
task. There is such a wide spectrum of issues involving the protection of
human life and the promotion of human dignity. Good people frequently disagree
on which problems to address, which policies to adopt and how best to apply
them. But for citizens and elected officials alike, the basic principle is
simple: We must begin with a commitment never to intentionally kill, or collude
in the killing, of any innocent human life, no matter how broken, unformed,
disabled or desperate that life may seem. In other words, the choice of certain
ways of acting is always and radically incompatible with the love of God
and the dignity of the human person created in His image. Direct abortion
is never a morally tolerable option. It is always a grave act of violence
against a woman and her unborn child. This is so even when a woman does not
see the truth because of the pressures she may be subjected to, often by
the child's father, her parents or friends. Similarly, euthanasia and assisted
suicide are never acceptable acts of mercy. They always gravely exploit the
suffering and desperate, extinguishing life in the name of the "quality of
life" itself. This same teaching against direct killing of the innocent condemns
all direct attacks on innocent civilians in time of war.
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Pope John Paul II has reminded us that we must respect every life, even that
of criminals and unjust aggressors. It is increasingly clear in modern society
that capital punishment is unnecessary to protect people's safety and the
public order, so that cases where it may be justified are "very rare, if
not practically non-existent." No matter how serious the crime, punishment
that does not take life is "more in conformity with the dignity of the human
person" (Evangelium Vitae, 56-7). Our witness to respect for life shines
most brightly when we demand respect for each and every human life, including
the lives of those who fail to show that respect for others. The antidote
to violence is love, not more violence.
-
Any politics of human life must work to resist the violence of war and the
scandal of capital punishment. Any politics of human dignity must seriously
address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing,
and health care. Therefore, Catholics should eagerly involve themselves as
advocates for the weak and marginalized in all these areas. Catholic public
officials are obliged to address each of these issues as they seek to build
consistent policies which promote respect for the human person at all stages
of life. But being 'right' in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice
regarding direct attacks on innocent human life. Indeed, the failure to protect
and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims
to the 'rightness' of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and
least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person
as the "temple of the Holy Spirit" -- the living house of God -- then these
latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that
house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and
euthanasia, strike at the house's foundation. These directly and immediately
violate the human person's most fundamental right -- the right to life. Neglect
of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand. Such attacks
cannot help but lull the social conscience in ways ultimately destructive
of other human rights.
The Pastoral Plan for Pro-life Activities of the US Bishops has always
pointed out the priority of abortion, and the most recent version of the
plan (2001: A Campaign in Support of Life) explains it this way:
Among important issues involving the dignity of human life with which the
Church is concerned, abortion necessarily plays a central role. Abortion,
the direct killing of an innocent human being, is always gravely immoral
(The Gospel of Life, no. 57); its victims are the most vulnerable and defenseless
members of the human family. It is imperative that those who are called to
serve the least among us give urgent attention and priority to this issue
of justice.
This focus and the Church's commitment to a consistent ethic of life complement
one another. A consistent ethic of life, which explains the Church's teaching
at the level of moral principle -- far from diminishing concern for abortion
and euthanasia or equating all issues touching on the dignity of human life
-- recognizes instead the distinctive character of each issue while giving
each its proper place within a coherent moral vision.
Faithful Citizenship (2003) quotes Living the Gospel of Life 5
as follows: "As we wrote in Living the Gospel of Life, 'Abortion and euthanasia
have become preeminent threats to human life and dignity because they directly
attack life itself, the most fundamental good and the condition for all
others.28 Abortion, the deliberate killing of a human being before
birth, is never morally acceptable."
Bishop Elio Sgreccia, Vice-President of the Pontifical Academy for Life,
said the following in an interview conducted in May, 2004: "Without respect
for life, without respect for the family, society simply does not exist ...
all [other] rights presuppose the right to life. If the right to life is
not defended, the defense of all these other rights is useless. It becomes
a lie, because it would mean that the defense to the right to work, to society,
etc. applies only to some, and not to all."
Cardinal Renato Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace, said the following in an interview conducted in May, 2004: "The
Holy Father speaks of the protection of life as the fundamental realization
and respect for human rights. Without that realization, without that respect
for the right to life, no other discussion of human rights can continue;
it must be based upon the foundation of human dignity and the right to life."
Archbishop John Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for Social
Communications at the Vatican, said the following in an interview conducted
in May, 2004:
Generally, law is needed to protect the weakest members of society because
strong members of society, the rich, the powerful, the strong can usually
take care of themselves but the weakest members of society need the protections
of society itself and the help of society itself. That is why we need laws
to protect the weak against violence form outside. The weakest members of
society are the unborn. They have no other spokespersons except, you might
say, society itself. So we must defend the rights of the innocent unborn...If
we don't have life we don't have anything.
In July, 2004, Priests for Life also interviewed representatives of the United
States Bishops' Conference and asked whether, in the view of the bishops,
it was true to say that abortion is the number one and most urgent moral
issue.
Cathleen Cleaver Ruse, Director of Planning and Information for the Pro-life
Secretariat of the US Bishops' Conference, responded as follows:
Sure, that's absolutely true. The church has taught on this issue of abortion
and its immorality since the Apostolic Age. It's one of our longest standing
moral public policy issues and it is not like any other issue really. It
is, some might say, it's non-negotiable. There are no instances where it
is morally licit or justifiable. That sets is apart from other issues like
capital punishment, like just war theory, and many other social issues that
are very, very important but don't have that kind of no exceptions policy.
So, the way the Church looks at abortion - abortion is one of those fundamental
issues. If that right is taken away, if the very right to life is taken away
then no other right matters. You don't have the ability to hold another right
or to have another right taken away. So, while health care, the right to
a good education, housing -- all of these issues --- are very, very
important, they are meaningless if the right to life is not first protected.
If social issues are like a house then the foundation is the right to life.
An abortion takes away or rips out the foundation. The many other social
issues can be considered the walls of that house but they can't be built
unless there's a foundation."
Richard Doerflinger, Deputy Director of the Pro-life Secretariat of the US
Bishops' Conference, echoed the same theme:
What the Church has said is that, because it is the first gift from a loving
God and the condition for all other human goods, all our other rights, life
itself has to be a top priority. It is the most basic gift and if we lose
the right to live we lose everything else. Now within the whole network of
issues about life, the first priority has to be the right of each individual
at every stage simply to exist at all. To be inviolable. To be free from
direct attacks. So the church has said that issues that involve direct attacks
on innocent human life -- and in our society today, obviously abortion, which
takes over a million lives in the United States every year -- issues like
euthanasia for the terminally ill are primary. They are the most basic threats
to human life, because they are direct attacks on life, because they attack
innocent life that's not doing anybody else harm or attacking anybody else,
and because they are attacking life at its most vulnerable and defenseless
-- the very stages where children and the elderly should be able to expect
the respect and protection of their families because it is where they are
weakest and most vulnerable.
What the Bishop's said in their 1998 document Living the Gospel of Life,
was that this whole edifice of human goods and ways of enhancing human life
are like a house, but the other issues that enhance the quality of life for
everyone are like the walls of the house and protecting the inviolability
of life itself from attack is like the foundation. You cannot have a house
anymore if you don't have a foundation. It's meaningless to say we are going
to enhance all these qualities of human life and say that human life itself
has no inherent worth. Those have to primary. Everything else grows from
that. We promote a consistent ethic of life, and at the same time there are
priorities; some things are more fundamental than others.
Following are some statements by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who was one of
the key spokespersons on the "consistent ethic of life."
In 1984, Cardinal Bernardin wrote the following:
Our "Statement on Political Responsibility" has always been, like our "Respect
Life Program," a multi-issue approach to public morality. The fact that this
Statement sets forth a spectrum of issues of current concern to the Church
and society should not be understood as implying that all issues are
qualitatively equal from a moral perspective ... As I indicated earlier,
each of the life issues -- while related to all the others -- is distinct
and calls for its own specific moral analysis." (A Consistent Ethic of
Life: Continuing the Dialogue, The William Wade Lecture Series, St. Louis
University, March 11, 1984).
A consistent ethic of life does not equate the problem of taking life (e.g.,
through abortion and in war) with the problem of promoting human dignity
(through humane programs of nutrition, health care, and housing). But a
consistent ethic identifies both the protection of life and its promotion
as moral questions (Wade lecture, as above).
A year later, he declared, "The fundamental human right is to life -- from
the moment of conception until death. It is the source of all other rights,
including the right to health care" (The Consistent Ethic of Life and
Health Care Systems, Foster McGaw Triennial Conference, Loyola University
of Chicago, May 8, 1985).
On Respect Life Sunday, 1 October 1989, Cardinal Bernardin issued a statement
entitled "Deciding for Life," in which he said the following:
Not all values, however, are of equal weight. Some are more fundamental than
others. On this Respect Life Sunday, I wish to emphasize that no earthly
value is more fundamental than human life itself. Human life is the condition
for enjoying freedom and all other values. Consequently, if one must choose
between protecting or serving lesser human values that depend upon life for
their existence and life itself, human life must take precedence. Today the
recognition of human life as a fundamental value is threatened. Nowhere is
this clearer than in the case of elective abortion. At present, in our country,
this procedure takes the lives of over 4,000 unborn children every day and
over 1.5 million each year.
Source:
http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/bishops/abone.htm
Related Pages
Ending Abortion
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