- Tvetydighet angående Kyrkans hållning i abortfrågan
- Den tredje utvägen: om alternativ till abort
- De lokala prästernas kommentar till det inträffade och till Fisichellas attack mot biskop Sobrinho
- Sanningen om aborten i Recife?
- Självkritik angående definitionen av abort
In addition to the protest of the archbishop of Olinda and Recife, the Vatican has received many other protests and requests for correction. Some of them have been made public by their respective authors. One of these is Professor Joseph Seifert, founder and rector of the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein and a member of the pontifical academy for life, headed by Fisichella:Biskop Sobrinho belönades med von Galen-priset för sitt agerande.
"I feel it to be my duty to express my ardent hope that the highest teaching authorities of the Church may express quickly and clearly the authentic Church teaching on the intrinsic evil of any abortion and correct publicly and unambiguously the mentioned statements."
Others have cited an unequivocal passage from the famous speech by Pius XII to obstetrical nurses in 1951: "to save the life of the mother is a very noble act; but the direct killing of the child as a means to such an end is illicit.
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9 kommentarer:
Ja man kan ju hoppas på det, det verkar råda förvirring även på de högsta nivåerna i Kyrkan emellanåt. Det är väl iochförsig inget modernt fenomen. Tråkigt bara att det verkar bli vanligare att förvirring sprids bland de troende. Kan det ha något att göra med moderna medier och deras inflytande i människors liv? Även kardinaler och påvar är ju människor.
Troskongregationen har nu kommit med ett klargörande.
Clarification of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
On procured abortion
Several letters have recently arrived at the Holy See, even from highly placed personalities of the political and ecclesial life, who have informed on the confusion created in several nations, particularly in Latin America, following the manipulation and distortion of an article by His Excellency Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, on the sad affair of the "Brazilian girl". In that article, which appeared in L'Osservatore Romano, the doctrine of the Church was proposed, even though taking into consideration the dramatic situation of the mentioned girl, who - as it could be pointed out afterwards - was attended with every pastoral care, in particular by the then Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, His Excellency Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho. Regarding this, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reaffirms that the doctrine of the Church on procured abortion has not changed and cannot change.
Human life must be respected and protected in an absolute manner from the moment of conception. From the first instant of his existence, the human being must have recognized his rights as a person, among which is the inviolable right to life of every innocent being. "Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee" (Jer 1, 5). "My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth" (Ps 139[138], 15).
Since the first century, the Church has declared the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed. It remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is, willed as an end or as a means, is gravely opposed to the moral law: "Thou shalt not kill a child by abortion, neither shalt thou slay it when born" (Didache, 2,2). "For God, the Lord of life, has conferred on men the surpassing ministry of safeguarding life in a manner which is worthy of man. Therefore from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care while abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes" (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 51).
Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave sin. The Church punishes this crime against human life with a canonical penalty of excommunication: "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication" (CIC, can. 1398), "for the very fact [ipso facto] of having committed the delict" (CIC, can 1314) and under the conditions foreseen by the law (cfr. CIC, canons 1323-1324). The Church does not intend to limit the domain of mercy in this manner. This puts in evidence the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable damage caused to the murdered innocent, to his parents, and to all society.
The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual represents a constitutive element of civil society and of its legislation: "the inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the State: they pertain to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his of her origin.Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard: every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death. ... The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation must accord them, the State is denying the equality of all before the law. When the State does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a State based on law are undermined. ... As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of his conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights" (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, III).
In the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II reaffirmed this doctrine with his authority of Supreme Pastor of the Church: "By the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, in communion with the Bishops-who on various occasions have condemned abortion and who in the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed throughout the world, have shown unanimous agreement concerning this doctrine-I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church's Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium" (n. 62).
Regarding procured abortion in some difficult and complex situations, the clear and precise teaching of Pope John Paul II stands: ""It is true that the decision to have an abortion is often tragic and painful for the mother, insofar as the decision to rid herself of the fruit of conception is not made for purely selfish reasons or out of convenience, but out of a desire to protect certain important values such as her own health or a decent standard of living for the other members of the family. Sometimes it is feared that the child to be born would live in such conditions that it would be better if the birth did not take place. Nevertheless, these reasons and others like them, however serious and tragic, can never justify the deliberate killing of an innocent human being" (Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, n. 58).
As for the problem of certain medical treatments with the end of preserving the health of the mother, two different cases should be distinguished: on one hand, a procedure which directly causes the death of the fetus, often called inappropriately a "therapeutic" abortion, cannot be any more licit than the direct murder of an innocent human being; on the other hand, a procedure which is not itself abortive may have, as a collateral consequence, the death of the child: "If, for instance, saving the life of the future mother, regardless of her state of pregnancy, would urgently demand a surgical procedure, or other therapeutic measure, which could have, as an accessory consequence, in no way willed by itself, but unavoidably, the death of the fetus, such act could not be called a direct attack against innocent life. In such conditions, the procedure may be considered licit, as other similar medical interventions, as long as a good of great worth, such as life, is involved, and it is not possible to postpone it until after the birth of the child, nor to resort to another efficacious remedy" (Pius XII, Address to the "Fronte alla Famiglia" and the Associazione Famiglie Numerose, November 27, 1951).
Regarding the responsibility of health-care personnel, the words of Pope John Paul II should be recalled: "Their profession calls for them to be guardians and servants of human life. In today's cultural and social context, in which science and the practice of medicine risk losing sight of their inherent ethical dimension, health-care professionals can be strongly tempted at times to become manipulators of life, or even agents of death. In the face of this temptation their responsibility today is greatly increased. Its deepest inspiration and strongest support lie in the intrinsic and undeniable ethical dimension of the health-care profession, something already recognized by the ancient and still relevant Hippocratic Oath, which requires every doctor to commit himself to absolute respect for human life and its sacredness" (Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, n. 89).
(L'Osservatore Romano - July 11, 2009
DFS
Stort tack för att du delar med dig av detta klargörande. Tack och lov att Kyrkan klargör vad som gäller i denna viktiga stridsfråga.
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