I have come to Spain for the fourth International Pro-life Congress in Saragossa in Aragón. The Catholic News Agency reports that I shall be among speakers from 14 countries addressing some 1,000 delegates, and a rough translation of the theme is "awareness: a symphony for life".The meeting starts tomorrow and ends on Sunday, when I shall be concluding the congress by speaking about policies for a European pro-life agenda.
I'll be saying that the British and Spanish prime ministers are promoting the lie that pro-lifers want to impose their religious beliefs on society. In fact, the pro-life movement represents humanity’s consensus on the right to life as reference to international human rights agreements shows clearly.
I'll say: "This is world war three and it’s primarily a war on the unborn and on parents as the primary educators of their children." I shall criticize church leaders who appear to have imbibed the spirit of the age. Catholic authorities in my country co-operate with the government in providing schoolchildren with access to abortion and birth control. At one Catholic school, a nurse used a plastic model to show children how to put on a condom. Pupils were given a card saying where to get free contraceptives and morning-after pills. It also had the address of a website which told young people where to get abortions.
Church leaders are failing to teach the prophetic message of Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on the transmission of human life, with a false distinction being made between church policy and church doctrine on this matter. With reference to recent events, I say that the pro-life movement must work to ensure that the same thing does not happen in the Church with Evangelium Vitae which sets out Catholic teaching on the sanctity and inviolability of every human life.
I shall end by calling for a radical change in the policy for nominating bishops throughout Europe. I'll call for an end to the nomination of bishops who do not have a sustained and genuine track record of fidelity to Catholic teaching on human life and how it is transmitted.
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