NEW YORK -- Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, issued the following comment today on Pope Francis’ new encyclical:
“Priests for Life welcomes the new encyclical from Pope Francis on the care for the environment. We draw particular attention to these lines from the document, which pertain in a particular way to our specific pro-life mission:”
117. When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected.
119. Christian thought sees human beings as possessing a particular dignity above other creatures; it thus inculcates esteem for each person and respect for others.
120. Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? “If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away” (Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate (29 June 2009), 28: AAS 101 (2009), 663)
For further reflections, please see my column published yesterday at Breitbart.
Priests for Life is the nation's largest Catholic pro-life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia. For more information, visit www.priestsforlife.org.