Catholic World News
May 29, 2023
In a short but wide-ranging interview with Telemundo’s Julio Vaqueiro, Pope Francis discussed migration, reflected on church reform, recalled his recent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and spoke about the prevalence of domestic violence when asked if there is a connection between celibacy and sexual violence.
He also reflected on abortion.
Vaqueiro asked Pope Francis: “There is a very big debate in the United States, Your Holiness, about abortion. We know what the position of the Church is, but do you think that a woman who has been raped has the right not to give birth to her child, which is the product of that rape?”
Pope Francis replied:
I say this about abortion: every second-year university embryology textbook says that one month after conception, even before the mother is aware [she is pregnant], the entire organ system is already drawn inside and the DNA is clear. In other words, it is a living thing. I’m not saying a person, it’s a living thing.
So, I ask myself: is it legal to remove a living being to solve a problem? Second question: Is it legal to hire a hitman to solve a problem? And there it is. You won’t get me out of there. Because that’s the truth.
Although Pope Francis has clearly stated that abortion is not morally legitimate, he has also been apparently hesitant to affirm that the unborn child is a person. (In fact, the Pope’s words give the impression that he may be denying the personhood of the unborn.)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of the obligation to treat unborn children as persons from the moment of conception:
From the first moment of his existence, the human being must be recognized with the rights of the individual – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life. (#2270)
The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of civil society and its legislation: “The inalienable rights of the individual must be recognized and respected by civil society and political power. These human rights depend neither on individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person originates. Among these fundamental rights, mention must be made in this regard of the right of every human being to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception to death. (No. 2273; quote from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the gift of life III).
Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be protected in its entirety, cared for and cured as far as possible, like any other human being. (#2274)
Similarly, Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:
A child is a gift from God, the ultimate gift of marriage. There is no such thing as a right to have children (eg “child at any cost”). But a child has the right to be the product of the conjugal act of his parents, as well as the right to be respected as a person from the moment of conception. (#500)
In his encyclical letter The gospel of life (1995), Pope St. John Paul II repeatedly referred to unborn children as persons. At various times during his pontificate, Pope Francis has also referred to unborn children as persons.
In his apostolic exhortation Rejoice and be merry, for example, Pope Francis teaches: “Our defense of the innocent unborn, for example, must be clear, firm and passionate, since what is at stake is the dignity of human life, which is always sacred and requires love for every person, regardless of his or her stage of life. development” (No. 101). He repeated these words in a 2018 address to the Pontifical Academy for Life.
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