John Paul II and the Defense of Life
John Paul II has tirelessly pleaded for the right
to life of the unborn, the elderly, the sick and the handicapped.
One can hardly forget his passionate call to end abortion on the
Capitol Mall, Washington D.C. and in his native Poland.
"I do not hesitate to proclaim before you
and before the world that all human life…is sacred, because
human life is created in the image and likeness of God. Nothing
surpasses the greatness or dignity of a human person. Human life
is precious because it is the gift of God whose love is infinite;
and when God gives life, it is forever. And so, we will stand up
every time that human life is threatened. When the sacredness of
life before birth is attacked, we will stand up and proclaim that
no one ever has the authority to destroy unborn life."
(From the address of Pope John Paul II, Capitol Mall, Washington,
D.C., October 7, 1979)
He established February 11 as the World Day of
Prayer for the Sick, and he has visited the sick during almost every
one of his trips.
In 1994 John Paul publicly objected to the September
Cairo Conference on population and development. The Church’s
concern over the conference centered on the possible harm it might
deal to human life and family issues because of family planning
programs for poor nations that included contraception and even abortion.
He explained to Mrs. Nafis Sadik, the secretary
general for the conference, "The proofs for the final documents
are a source of great concern to me. Some of the proposals contradict
basic ethical principles. And this is a discussion of the future
of humanity." The Pope objected that the document did not condemn
sterilization and abortion, and it ignored the institution of matrimony,
as if marriage were something that belonged to the past. Further,
he complained the document stressed a limitation of the family rather
than its development.
Two documents are especially significant in John
Paul’s defense of human life. The first is the Letter to
Families, dated February 22, 1994. Here the Pope criticizes
the culture of the West, which has in recent times "passed
laws contrary to the right to life of every human being." Consequently,
"we are facing an immense threat to life; not only to the life
of individuals but also to that of civilization itself. The statement
that civilization has become in certain areas a ‘civilization
of death’ is being confirmed in disturbing ways."
The second document is the 1995 encyclical Evangelium
Vitae (The Gospel of Life), a magisterial synthesis on the defense
of life. The document also contains something new by way of a statement
on the death penalty. In spite of the uninterrupted tradition in
its favor, the encyclical opposes the death penalty in order to
be consistent with its fundamental teaching on abortion and euthanasia,
and in 1997 he also had a corrected text regarding the death
penalty inserted into the definitive edition of the Catechism
of the Catholic Church.
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