As Voice of the Family reported last week:
"A representative of the Holy See [Monsignor Jean-Marie Musivi Mupendawatu, secretary to the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers], in an intervention at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva last week, welcomed Sustainable Development Goal 3 and all its targets, despite target 7 calling for 'universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services.' These terms are defined as including abortion and contraception by many powerful governments and agencies ... "... These powerful governments and agencies include the Obama administration, the British government, the United Nations Population Fund, International Planned Parenthood Federation to name but a few.
The Voice of the Family report continued:
Mgr Mupendawatu made no reference to the statement of reservations issued by the Holy See delegation to the UN in New York after the approval of the SDGs by the UN in September 2015. In that statement the Holy See expressed some reservations regarding Goals 3.7 and 5.6, both of which refer to “sexual and reproductive health”. The text of the Holy See statement of reservations can be accessed here.It might be argued that this was an isolated instance, a simple mistake as a result of inexperience, carelessness or human error. We are human. Mistakes happen. I accept that.
However, whether or not a most regrettable mistake was made, the fact is, as the Voice of the Family report points out: " ... there has been extensive collaboration between other Holy See bodies and powerful proponents of abortion, contraception and population control during the current pontificate, under the guise of promoting sustainable development". A selection of Voice of the Family’s commentary on this collaboration can be found below:
Pro-family Catholics disturbed after reports of Pope’s comments on contraception, 18 February 2016Like many other pro-life activists, I personally have a right and a duty to speak out about what's happening at the highest levels in the Catholic Church:
Climate agreement welcomed by pope but pro-lifers concerned about language that promotes abortion, 22 December 2015
Cardinal Turkson: Pope Francis ‘has invited people to some form of birth control”, 10 December 2015
‘Sacrilege’: Catholic leaders react to Vatican’s climate change light show, 9 December 2015
Synod adopts alarming sociological approach in place of clear doctrine, 12 November 2015
Voice of the Family statement: Parents are the primary educators of their children, 15 October 2015
Synod fathers who compromise on contraception will be responsible for greater abortion, 6 October 2015
African families gravely threatened by western governments, international agencies and Vatican departments, 18 August 2015
Professor Schellnhuber: climate science and the population problem, 26 June 2015
Launch of new encyclical by head of Catholic agency accused of funding contraception shows urgent need for reaffirmation of Humanae Vitae, 19 June 2015
Voice of the Family statement on the encyclical letter Laudato Si, 18 June 2015
Any discussion on the environment must stem from understanding that the family is the key to sustainable development, 21 May 2015
Vatican endorsement of UN Sustainable Development Goals threatens unborn children, 29 April 2015
Leading global pro-abortion advocates speak at Vatican conference, 28 April 2015
I have worked at national and international level for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children for over four decades. In the 1990s, at United Nations conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, at the invitation of the Holy See, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups in a great united effort, under the clear moral leadership of Pope John Paul II, to stop the world's great powers from establishing in international law a right to abortion. Since 1994, SPUC has sent professional lobbyists to United Nations meetings in New York, Geneva and elsewhere, at the expense of our hardworking families throughout Britain who support our work, maintaining in co-operation with other pro-life groups of all faiths and none, the historic struggle against the "right" to abortion. Throughout that period SPUC's team has sought to maintain a close relationship with the Holy See delegation which is so critical in persuading delegates from supporting nations to support marriage, parents as the primary educators, and to oppose abortion.
In raising my concerns, of necessity sometimes publicly like today, I am fulfilling my duty as clearly laid out in the Code of Canon Law, which states:
“According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they [the Christian faithful] have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.” (Canon 212 §3)I do urge pro-life activists "with reverence" towards your pastors "and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons" to raise your concerns with your diocesan bishop and other relevant authorities in the Church about a situation which, I am advised, is unprecedented in the history of the Church. I believe that future generations will consider us answerable for our failure to do so. Whilst my appeal is primarily to fellow Catholics, I believe that everyone with concern for the common good has a duty to act.
We are arguably experiencing the greatest catastrophe in the history of humanity. At a conservative estimate, since 1966, around 2 billion babies, made in the image and likeness of God, have been killed by abortion worldwide according to leading researchers from both the pro-abortion and pro-life lobbies. Moreover, the number of human embryos destroyed in the past 50 years by abortifacient birth control drugs and devices worldwide is simply incalculable; and in the UK alone, 2 million embryonic babies have been killed as a result of in vitro fertilisation procedures since 1990, according to the British Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority; add to that the scores of other countries where IVF is practised and the number of human beings killed is once again incalculable.
Estimates for the total number killed in wars throughout all of recorded human history range from 150 million to 1 billion. Even if the number were twice that higher figure, the last 50 years has witnessed the killing of more human beings through the “sexual and reproductive health” systems in our so-called civilised countries worldwide than in all the wars in recorded human history. In addition, during the past half century explicit sex education has destroyed the innocence of children, a sex education which provides children and adolescents with access to contraception and abortion. By removing parents as the primary educators of their children in the intimate area of human sexuality, powerful governments and the international birth control lobby funded by those powerful governments with our taxes, are establishing acceptance of contraception and abortion in the darkened hearts and consciences of future generations of adults.
Pro-life organizations, our families and the wider community need urgently to be reinforced by unequivocal, unyielding voices of Catholic Church officials and bishops throughout the world because the full Gospel message about the truth and meaning of human sexuality and the sanctity of human life, teaching which is also part of the natural law written on all human hearts, is the most important weapon known to man against the culture of death. The intimate connection between the truth and meaning of human sexuality and the sanctity of human life is nowhere more fully spelled out than in Catholic teaching – and all people of good will are capable of understanding that intimate connection.
This is not the time to be silent about what is happening at the highest levels in the Church.
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