The Catholic Herald skriver i dag om pave Benedikts tale til en gruppe biskoper fra Brasil:
Bishops must guide their faithful to use their vote to oppose efforts to legalise abortion and euthanasia, Pope Benedict XVI told bishops from Brazil yesterday.
“Dear brother bishops, to defend life we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, and we must refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might conform us to the world’s way of thinking,” the Pope said during a meeting with bishops from northeast Brazil. The bishops were making their ad limina visits to report on the status of their dioceses.
… … Pope Benedict told the Brazilian bishops that while direct involvement in politics is the responsibility of the laity, “when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls requires it, pastors have a serious duty to make moral judgments even in political matters”.
Certain actions and political policies, such as abortion and euthanasia, are “intrinsically evil and incompatible with human dignity” and cannot be justified for any reason, the Pope said.
While some may claim they support abortion or euthanasia to defend the weak and the poor, “who is more helpless than an unborn child or a patient in a vegetative or terminal state?” he asked.
“When political positions openly or covertly include plans to decriminalise abortion and euthanasia, the democratic ideal – which is truly democratic only when it acknowledges and safeguards the dignity of every human person – is betrayed at its foundations,” Pope Benedict told the bishops. …