We support the international moratorium on abortions directed to the UN Secretary-General
Fr. IRENEUSZ SKUBIŚ
Dear Friends!
I want to encourage all of you to get to know the appeal launched by Giuliano Ferrara, the Italian editor of ‘Il Foglio’, directed to Dr Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General. Ferrara called for a moratorium on abortions. He got the idea because of another appeal, signed on 18 December 2007, concerning a moratorium on the death penalty. It is important that the man who appeals to stop this barbarian procedure, i.e. killing the unborn children, is doing that for general human reasons. One should notice that within one year a Poland-sized population is killed through abortion worldwide. In order to give some comparison let us say that the death toll during World War II was about 50 million. Currently, during peace time, the holocaust is being done in medical offices. Taking decisions concerning the so-called abortion, since it is a criminal act against innocent, defenceless human beings that should be protected in a special way, is an expression of some huge lack of imagination. It seems that numerous people, including medical doctors, do not know what they are doing. The Church defends human life from conception to natural death. Since man, created by God in his image and likeness, has an immortal soul from the beginning and is called to eternal happiness. This is a brief description of God’s plan for every human being. Let us see how big the powers are in every human existence, what the human genetic code looks like. It is a unique code, showing the uniqueness of every human being, his/her personal condition and eternal destiny. The act of killing a human foetus means killing a concrete man. Therefore, the statement of Giuliano Ferrara, a non-believer, is very important since considering the aspect of natural law he shows that one cannot kill human beings and he appeals to the United Nations to prepare a moratorium on abortions. The appeal concerning the death penalty, a moratorium on executions, is an act of unique humanism and Christian attitude. According to the teaching of the Church death sentences should not be passed and executed. Life and death belong to God and only he can decide about them. No man is eligible to kill. And no government and judge in the world should decide about these matters. Therefore, we should take a respectful attitude towards the moratorium on the death penalty. In this background the appeal calling for a moratorium on abortions is even more justifiable. The world was far from abortions and killing the unborn children until the time of the Bolshevik revolution. It seemed that when the revolution had found less support in the world the murder of the unborn children would have been stopped. Unfortunately, through various forms of propaganda the horrible procedure has been performed and unfortunately it often happens in the Christian world, in the world that received God’s revelation, where it is obvious that one must not kill – the fifth commandment is always binding: You shall not kill, and it also concerns unborn human beings. We should also remember the great teaching concerning the respect for life presented by the Servant of God John Paul II, the great Pope from the Polish nation, especially the teaching of the encyclical ‘Evangelium vitae’ (1995). We are glad that a great thought has originated and it has been approved by numerous outstanding personalities in the world who call for stopping abortions as well as they loudly appeal for a moratorium on executions. Man should not replace the Creator in any case, the Creator who is the Lord of life and death. Man should serve life as he serves God. Currently, the Catholic Weekly ‘Niedziela’ begins a great initiative asking people to sign the appeal launched by Giuliano Ferrara to the United Nations and wants to have his appeal strengthened by the voices of the fellow countrymen of the great Pope John Paul II. The next issue of ‘Niedziela’ will include an interview with Guliano Ferrara given to our Roman correspondent Wlodzimierz Redzioch. Mr Ferrara will speak about his important initiative. We have consulted the initiative of collecting people’s signatures with Mr Ferrara, who is in favour of our activities. Bishop Kazimierz Gorny, the President of the Council for Family in the Polish Bishops’ Conference, has supported the initiative of ‘Niedziela.’ We are publishing the special letter of Bishop Gorny and the project of the moratorium on abortions by Guliano Ferrara on page 6. We should sign the moratorium and send it to ‘Niedziela’ and the editorial board will send all the correspondence to the UN Secretary-General. We count on our Readers’ support since from the Christian point of view every life is a precious gift.
PS
The text of the appeal of ‘Niedziela’, the letter of Bishop Kazimierz Gorny and the text of Giuliano Ferrara’s appeal to the UN can be found on the web site of ‘Niedziela’: www.niedziela.pl. You can also express your support for the initiative aiming at stopping abortion.
"Niedziela" 10/2008