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Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical the
Gospel of Life (Evangelium
Vitae) is a reflection on the Gospel of Life, which has its source
and goal in Jesus Christ, the Beginning and the End. Life is a gift and
should be defended as part of the truth about man and God.
The Encyclical is an appeal to all
individuals and peoples, believers and non-believers, to promote the
culture of life against the culture of death.
It is a summons to hearts and releases the forces of
good in defense of human life.
It is a
call to a deep and courageous conversion that challenges the persons and
institutions that promote the culture of death.
The Holy Father deserves a great Pro-Life
Movement. We should support him and generally mobilize as Soldiers of
Christ totally consecrated to Life in spiritual warfare with the culture
of death armed with the spiritual and corporal works of mercy and
fortified by the Sacraments, prayer, fasting and Eucharistic adoration.
The Encyclical must not just be read but
must be studied in order to formulate specific tactics for us to act
upon and to implement the Holy Father’s general strategy for life. The
great Victory for life is about to be won but it depends on the response
of each one of us. Let us at least help the Holy Father to establish
his proposed Day for Life. Many countries have established March 25,
Feast of the Annunciation as a Day for Life. It reminds us that life
begins at conception and the Holy Spirit conceived Jesus Christ, the
Life, on that day.
Here are some excerpts from the Pope’s
Encyclical.
The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus’ message. Everyone can
recognize the sacred value of human life from its very beginning until
its end, and can affirm the right of every human being to have this
primary good respected to the highest degree. Upon the recognition of
this right, every human community and the political community itself are
founded.
The Gospel of God’s love for man, the Gospel of the dignity of the
person and the Gospel of life are a single and indivisible Gospel.
Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder,
genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction, whatever
violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments
inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever
insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary
imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women
and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people
are treated as mere instruments of gain rather than as free and
responsible persons; all these things and others like them are infamies
indeed. They poison human society, and they do more harm to those who
practice them than to those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they
are a supreme dishonor to the Creator.
The present Encyclical is a pressing appeal addressed to each and every
person, in the name of God: respect, protect, love and serve life,
every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice,
development, true freedom, peace and happiness!
The Gospel of life, proclaimed in the beginning when man was created in
the image of God, for a destiny of full and perfect life is contradicted
by the painful experience of death which enters the world and casts its
shadow of meaninglessness over man’s entire existence. Death came into
the world as a result of the devil’s envy and the sin of our first
parents. And death entered it in a violent way, through the killing of
Abel by his brother Cain.
After the crime, God intervenes to avenge the one killed. God cannot
leave the crime unpunished. Whoever attacks human life, in some way
attacks God Himself.
And yet God, who is always merciful even when He punishes, pledges to
guarantee that not even a murderer loses his personal dignity. And it
is precisely here that the paradoxical mystery of the merciful justice
of God is shown forth.
Contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the
same tree. The close connection which exists, in mentality, between the
practice of contraception and that of abortion is becoming increasingly
obvious. It is being demonstrated in an alarming way by the development
of chemical products, intrauterine devices and vaccines which really act
as abortifacients in the very early stages of the development of the
life of the new human being.
The various techniques of artificial reproduction,
which would seem to be at the service of life, actually open the door to
new threats against life. They are morally unacceptable, since they
separate procreation from the fully human context of the conjugal act.
To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to
recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a
perverse and evil significance; that of an absolute power over others
and against others. This is the death of true freedom: “Truly, truly,
I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin.” Jn 8:34.
We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil,
death and life, the “culture of death” and the “culture of life.” We
find ourselves not only “faced with” but necessarily “in the midst of”
this conflict: we are all involved and we all share in it, with the
inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life.
“Choose life, that you and your descendants may live.” Dt 30:15, 19.
Man’s life comes from God; it is His gift, not a right! His image and
imprint, a sharing in His breath of life. God therefore is the sole
Lord of this life: man cannot do with it as he wills. God Himself
makes this clear to Noah after the Flood: “For your own lifeblood, too,
I will demand an accounting…and from man in regard to his fellow man I
will demand an accounting for human life.” Gn 9:5.
But God does not exercise this power in an arbitrary
and threatening way, but rather as part of His care and loving concern
for His creatures. “God did not make death, and He does not delight in
the death of the living. For He created all things that they might
exist.” Wis 1:13-14.
It is precisely in their role as co-workers with God who transmits His
image to the new creature that we see the greatness of couples who are
ready “to cooperate with the love of the Creator and the Savior, who
through them will enlarge and enrich His own family day by day.”
Nothing and no one can in any way permit the killing of an innocent
human being, whether a fetus or an embryo, and infant or an adult, an
old person, or one suffering from an incurable disease, or a person who
is dying. Furthermore, no one is permitted to ask for this act of
killing, either for himself of herself or for another person entrusted
to his or her care, nor can he or she consent to it, either explicitly
or implicitly. Nor can any authority legitimately recommend or permit
such an action.
The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the
moment of conception; and therefore, from that same moment, his rights
as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the
inviolable right of every innocent human being to life.
A person who actually procures an abortion incurs automatic
excommunication. The excommunication affects all those who commit this
crime with knowledge of the penalty attached, and thus includes those
accomplices without whose help the crime would not have been committed.
In the Church the purpose of the penalty of excommunication is to make
an individual fully aware of the gravity of a certain sin and then to
foster genuine conversion and repentance.
The use of human embryos or fetuses as an object of experimentation
constitutes a crime against their dignity as human beings who have a
right to the same respect owed to a child once born, just as to every
person.
This moral condemnation also regards procedures that exploit living
human embryos and fetuses – sometimes specifically “produced” for this
purpose by in vitro fertilization – either to be used as “biological
material” or as providers of organs or tissue for transplants in the
treatment of certain diseases.
Euthanasia in the strict sense is understood to be an action or omission
which of itself and by intention causes death, with the purpose of
eliminating all suffering.
Euthanasia must be distinguished from the decision to forego so-called
“aggressive medical treatment”, in other words, medical procedures which
no longer correspond to the real situation of the patient, either
because they are by now disproportionate to any expected results or
because they impose an excessive burden on the patient and his family.
In such situations, when death is clearly imminent and inevitable, one
can in conscience refuse forms of treatment that would only secure a
precarious and burdensome prolongation of life, so long as the normal
care due to the sick person in similar cases is not interrupted. To
forego extraordinary or disproportionate means is not the equivalent of
suicide or euthanasia; it rather expresses acceptance of the human
condition in the face of death.
Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to
legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws;
instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by
conscientious objection.
I propose that a Day for Life be celebrated each year in every
country. The celebration of this Day should be planned and carried out
with the active participation of all sectors of the local Church. Its
primary purpose should be to foster in individual consciences, in
families, in the Church and in civil society recognition of the meaning
and value of human life at every stage and in every condition.
Our support and promotion of human life must be accomplished through the
service of charity, which finds expression in personal witness, various
forms of volunteer work, social activity and political commitment.
To this end, appropriate and effective programs of support for new life
must be implemented, with special closeness to mothers who, even without
the help of the father, are not afraid to bring their child into the
world and to raise it. Similar care must be shown for the life of the
marginalized or suffering, especially in its final phases.
It requires a continuous promotion of vocations to service, particularly
among the young. It involves the implementation of long-term practical
projects and initiatives inspired by the Gospel.
Centers for natural methods of regulating fertility should be promoted
as a valuable help to responsible parenthood. Marriage and family
counseling agencies also offer valuable help in rediscovering the
meaning of love and life. Newborn life is also served by centers of
assistance and homes or centers where new life receives a welcome.
Other programs such as communities for treating drug addiction,
residential communities for minors or the mentally ill, care and relief
centers for AIDS patients, and associations for solidarity especially
towards the disabled are eloquent expressions of what charity is able to
devise in order to give everyone new reasons for hope and practical
possibilities for life. The elderly and the terminally ill should enjoy
genuinely humane assistance and an adequate response to their needs.
The underlying causes of attacks on life have to be eliminated,
especially by ensuring proper support for families and motherhood. A
family policy must be the basis and the driving force of all social
policies.
No single person or group has a monopoly on the defense and promotion of
life. These are everyone’s task and responsibility. On the eve of the
Third Millennium, the challenge facing us is an arduous one: only the
concerted efforts of all those who believe in the value of life can
prevent a setback of unforeseeable consequences for civilization.
What is urgently called for is a general mobilization of consciences and
a united ethical effort to activate a great campaign in support of
life. All together, we must build a new culture of life.
Closely connected with the formation of conscience is the work of
education. There is a need for education about the value of life from
its very origins; training married couples in responsible procreation
and a consideration of suffering and death.
In a word, we can say that the cultural change which we are calling for
demands from everyone the courage to adopt a new life-style, consisting
in making practical choices - at the personal, family, social and
international level – on the basis of a correct scale of values: the
primacy of being over having, of the person over things.
I would now like to say a special word to women who have had an
abortion. The Church is aware of the many factors which may have
influenced your decision. Certainly what happened was and remains
terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose
hope. The Father of mercies is ready to give you His forgiveness and
His peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up
throughout the world. Jesus Himself has shown us by His own example
that prayer and fasting are the first and most effective weapons against
the forces of evil (cf Mk 9:29). Let us therefore discover anew the
humility and the courage to pray and fast so that power from on high
will break down the walls of lies and deceit.
For
stories of life and hope see our catalog and order my video, Our
Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of Hope! and my book,
Teresita’s Choices, A Testimony of Life, Healing and Hope.
Dan Lynch is a retired Judge in the
State of Vermont. He is an author, producer of audios and videos and has
appeared on radio and television. He is also the Director of the
apostolate of The Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Other Articles by Dan Lynch
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