Posted on 04/10/2005 9:24:34 AM PDT by cpforlife.org
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Pope John Paul II Quotes on Abortion Issues
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 8, 2005
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The following is a compilation of quotes from Pope John Paul II on abortion issues:
-- "I appeal urgently to all of you, dear brothers and sisters, to do everything in your power to ensure that life, each and every life, will be respected from conception to its natural end," the Pope said. "Life is a sacred gift, and no one can presume to be its master."
-- "What stronger aspiration is there than that of life?" he asked. "And yet on this universal human aspiration threatening shadows are gathering -- the shadow of a culture that denies the respect of life at all its stages," the Pope explained.
-- The Pope said the "challenge to life has grown in scale and urgency in recent years." "It has involved particularly the beginning of human life, when human beings are at their weakest and most in need of protection," he said.
-- The government of each nation "has as its primary task precisely the safeguarding and promotion of human life."
-- "The Church's position, supported by reason and science, is clear: the human embryo is a subject identical to the human being which will be born at the term of its development," he explained. "Consequently whatever violates the integrity and the dignity of the embryo is ethically inadmissible."
-- "We must not be resigned to attacks on human life, above all, abortion. Human life is a precious gift to be loved and defended in each of its stages."
-- "We have to question the legal regulations that have been decided in the parliaments of present day democracies. The most direct association which comes to mind is the abortion laws. Parliaments which create and promulgate such laws must be aware that they are transgressing their powers and remain in open conflict with the law of God and the law of nature."
Printed from: http://www.lifenews.com/nat1259b.html
Excellent article.
--Pope John Paul II, 1995 The Gospel of Life .
That's about as succinct as it gets.
Yep,
Of course every article from Jill is great. She a true hero.
† Ioannes Paulus II Requiescat in Pacem †
Pope John Paul II Quotes on Human Cloning, Euthanasia Issues Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 9, 2005
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The following is a compilation of quotes from Pope John Paul II on bioethics issues such as human cloning and embryonic stem cell research:
-- The Pope said that scientists who engage in human cloning have an "arrogant belief that their project is better than the Creator's design."
"The results achieved in various fields of science and technology are considered and defended by many as a priori acceptable," the Pope said in a statement released on Sunday. "In this way, one ends up expecting that what is technically possible is in itself also ethically good. The way taught by Christ is different: respect for human beings."
-- "A man, even if seriously sick or prevented in the exercise of its higher functions, is and will be always a man ... [he] will never become a 'vegetable' or an 'animal,'" the Pope said. "The intrinsic value and personal dignity of every human being does not change depending on their circumstances."
-- Providing food and water to such patients should be a natural thing to do and "morally obligatory," but not considered extraordinary measures, the Pope added. "In particular, I want to emphasize that the administration of water and food . . . always represents a natural means of preservation of life, not a medical treatment."
-- Removing the feeding tube of a disabled person is a "serious violation of the Law of God."
-- The Pope said that scientists who engage in human cloning have an "arrogant belief that their project is better than the Creator's design."
-- "Medicine always places itself at the service of life. Even when it knows it cannot defeat a serious pathology, it dedicates its own capabilities to alleviating suffering."
-- "To work with passion to help the patient in every situation means to be aware of the inalienable dignity of every human being, even those in the extreme conditions of a terminal state," the Pope, who suffers from debilitating Parkinson's disease, said. "Suffering, old age, the unconscious state, the imminence of death do not lessen the person's intrinsic dignity, created in the image of God," the Pope concluded. "[T]rue compassion, on the contrary, promotes every reasonable effort to favor the patient's healing."
-- "Scientific research in the field of genetics needs to be encouraged and promoted, but, like every other human activity, it can never be exempt from moral imperatives," he said. "[A]ny form of scientific research which treats the embryo merely as a laboratory specimen is unworthy of man."
-- "The care of the elderly, above all when they pass through difficult moments, must be of great concern to all the faithful. What would happen if the people of God yielded to a certain current mentality that considers these people, our brothers and sisters, as almost useless when they are reduced in their capacities due to the difficulties of age or sickness."
-- "Though shalt not kill" must always be respected from the beginning of life "to its natural end." "It is a command that applies even in the presence of illness and when physical weakness reduces the person's ability to be self-reliant."
Printed from: http://www.lifenews.com/nat1261b.html
Abortion was NEVER a doctrine that was even countenanced by the Catholic Church, in any form or at any time in its history. People had intercourse for the express purpose of producing babies, everything else connected with sex was either secondary or proscribed.
The Romans, the Greeks, the Egyptians all had means at their disposal of aborting pregnancies, which were about as hazardous for the mother as they were for the developing infant. It is only in recent decades that abortion has become only relatively safe, and there is still a 50% mortality rate. Rarely does a developing infant survive an abortion attempt, and successful abortions are invariably fatal for the child. So the injunctions against abortion were pretty well ingrained in the Catholic theology. The term "kill" comes to mind, and while people do not like to be reminded of the unpleasantry connected with the conscious act to terminate a healthy pregnancy, that is the stark reality of what happens.
All this is old ground, and it is persons of little or no religions persuasion who have been in the forefront of promoting "abortion on demand", apparently as a backup plan for inappropriate sexual encounters. No theological contemplations for them, if a matter of convenience is of greater importance.
P I N G
Good one.
Jill was fantastic as our March for Life speaker a few
years ago.
You won't be disappointed!!
Jill Stanek is This Catholic's Hero!!
To which Chrissy would likely reply: What is truth?
If every adult citizen had heard what Jill Stanek said on that day, I believe we would've seen Roe v. Wade overturned already.
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PAUL VI
ON THE REGULATION OF BIRTH
JULY 25, 1968
Exactly. Such comments uttered by the Chris Matthews of the world, drive me INSANE!!!!!!
Well written article!
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