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Online Exclusive Interview ‘Abortion Rights Is an Evil Agenda’
In a June 1 e-mail interview with the Register, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, forcefully denounced Amnesty International’s decision to promote abortion rights.
BY Register Staff June 17-23, 2007 Issue |
Posted 6/12/07 at 7:00 AM
‘Abortion Rights Is an Evil Agenda’
VATICAN CITY — In a June 1 e-mail interview with the Register, Cardinal Renato
Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, forcefully
denounced Amnesty International’s decision to promote abortion rights.
Here is the
complete text of Cardinal Martino’s remarks to the Register.
Your Eminence, what is your
reaction to the recent decision by Amnesty International (AI) to promote
abortion?
Needless to say, I
am extremely disappointed with AI’s recent decision to promote abortion rights.
I have always had great esteem for Amnesty International because when Peter Benenson
founded the organization in 1961, the mission of AI was clear — to witness to
the inalienable rights of all human beings.
As a result of the
recent decision of AI to support abortion rights worldwide, however, I believe
Amnesty International has betrayed its mission to promote and protect human
rights. By pushing for the decriminalization of abortion as part of their
platform, Amnesty International has disqualified itself as a defender of human
rights.
If AI is no longer
willing to stand up for the most basic human right — the right to life — then
the very integrity of the organization is called into question.
Amnesty International says it is necessary to allow women access to
abortion in cases when they are victims of rape, as well as in cases where
pregnancy poses a risk to the mother’s life or health. What is your response to
that argument?
The Church teaches
that it is never justifiable to kill an innocent human life. Abortion is
murder. To selectively justify abortion, even in the cases of rape, is to
define the innocent child within the womb as an enemy, a “thing” that must be
destroyed. How can we say that killing a child in some cases is “good” and in
other cases it is evil?
Such a distinction
is incomprehensible for people of good will; and it is incompatible to the
mission of Amnesty International, and, for that matter, to the common good of
the human family.
Although there is no “internationally recognized human right” to abortion,
many international non-governmental organizations, and now apparently Amnesty
International, seek to promote such a right. In your view, and in light of your
long experience as the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations, why
is this such a persistent question?
Thanks be to God
there is not an “internationally
recognized right” to abortion. I was head of the Holy See delegation to the
Cairo Conference on Population and Development when that issue was settled
definitively. Paragraph 8.25 of the Cairo Declaration clearly states, “In no
case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning … and every
attempt should be made to eliminate the need for abortion…”
The fact that pro-abortion
lobbyists continue to promote the right to abortion is a phenomenon associated
with what the Servant of God called “the culture of death.” We cannot be naïve
in our reflection on this issue. The pro-death agenda that promotes abortion
rights is an evil agenda. It is cloaked in human rights language, but in
reality it undermines the very human rights it portends to support. Its logical
conclusion is the destruction of life and all of the life-giving values that we
as a human family and as a society should be grateful for.
De-sensitizing the
culture to the evil of abortion is part and parcel of the pro-abortion lobby. It
is hard to believe that Amnesty International has acquiesced to the pressures
of this lobby.
What can Catholics in the United States, and in other
countries, do to counteract such attitudes within the culture and promote
instead a renewed respect for the rights of the unborn?
First of all,
Catholics and all people of good will throughout the world ought to renew their understanding of the Gospel of Life.
The Catholic
community in particular must recall the guiding principles that give to the
eyes of faith the courage and conviction to witness in word and in deed to all
that is true and good, beginning with the dignity of the human person. A
rediscovery of the social doctrine of the Church and its wisdom is needed to
invigorate the faith of people in an age that has seen rapid changes in the
ways of life.
Likewise, an
authentic appreciation for the common good and its relationship to true human fulfillment
is necessary to put the question of abortion in its proper perspective. Notwithstanding
the objective evil of abortion, it simply is not compatible with the common
good of humanity to kill unborn children, or to make it easier to do so by
promoting the right to abortion.
Should individual Catholics and Catholic organizations withdraw their
financial support from Amnesty International because of its decision to promote
abortion rights?
The very promotion
of abortion opens the door to the slippery slope of evil and death, where human
rights are taken away from the most innocent and vulnerable children of God. I believe
that, if in fact Amnesty International persists in this course of action, individuals
and Catholic organizations must withdraw their support; because, in deciding to
promote abortion rights, AI has betrayed its mission. It has betrayed all of
its faithful supporters throughout the years, both individuals and
organizations, who have trusted AI for its integral mission of promoting and
protecting human rights.
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