The Protection and Concern for All Life...
Tomorrow marks the thirty fourth anniversary if the Supreme Court's decision to make abortions legal. Once again tens of thousands of pro-lifers will march up to the Supreme Court building to ask that all life, even before birth, be protected. These pro-life people are just that: they truly are for the protection of and the promotion of the quality of all human life.
They are not out to cause trouble, but they are asking that life be respected. They believe that education is the key.
Six weeks ago, Pope Benedict said:
Modern society not merely lacks morals but has 'discovered' and demands another dimension of morality... This dimension includes the great topics of peace, nonviolence, justice for all, concern for the poor and respect for creation.The new religion for many today does not involve God but concerns the promotion of peace and justice; it includes the protection of the environment and help for the poor. But, as the Pope said, these moral concerns have been those of the Church too.
In terms of human life modern man will employ abortion, euthanasia, embryonic manipulation with the justification of serving future generations.
The Pope went on to say:
However, on the other hand, the knowledge also exists that human life is a gift that demands our respect and love from the very first to its very last moments, also for the suffering, the disabled and the weak. The morality of marriage and the family also fit into this context," Benedict XVI said. Marriage is becoming, so to speak, ever more marginalized, so that marriage is no longer defined as a bond between a man and a woman but a bond between persons.
The awareness that sexuality, eros and marriage as a union between a man and a woman go together -- 'and they become one flesh' -- this knowledge is growing weaker and weaker; every type of bond seems entirely normal -- they represent a sort of overall morality of nondiscrimination and a form of freedom due to man.
There are of course many explanations for the problem of the sharp decline in the birthrate, but certainly a decisive role is also played in this by the fact that people want to enjoy life, that they have little confidence in the future and that they feel the family is no longer viable as a lasting community in which future generations may grow up.We have to always stand up for the truth -- to show the connection of the protection of the world's people and environment with the protection of life from conception. It is all part of the one morality given to us by God.
Our Holy Father concluded by saying:
Only if human life from conception until death is respected, is the ethic of peace possible and credible; only then may nonviolence be expressed in every direction, only then can we truly accept creation and only then can we achieve true justice.
Fr. Stanley
