The Holy Father’s annual address at the New Year’s reception for representatives of the diplomatic corps is an important opportunity each year to communicate to the world how the Catholic Church views the political situation.
This year’s address, the first by the new Pope in a pontificate that could last for many years, is particularly significant. Among other things, the pontiff expresses deep concern over the European pro-abortion citizens’ initiative “My Voice, My Choice”, which, despite having received far less support from “ordinary” citizens than we did with our pro-life initiative in 2014, is being energetically promoted by the left to extreme-left political spectrum in the EP and within the European Commission, while meeting only half-hearted (if any) resistance from centrist or allegedly “Christian Democrat” politicians.
Human rights seem to be a particular concern for the Pope – or rather, a correct interpretation of human rights, and consequently not the interpretation that emerges from documents of the UN, the Council of Europe and the EU. The Holy Father emphasises that natural moral law, and not some political process, is the true source of legal thinking and action.
Two passages deserve particular attention on the part of the EU in view of current initiatives to frame abortion, i.e. the deliberate destruction of unborn children, as a “public health service”, and to use EU funds to finance abortion tourism from Member States with more life-protecting to Member States with less protective laws.
The Holy Father points out that all policies trying to subvert justice will by necessity always require a falsification of language:
“Today, the meaning of words is ever more fluid, and the concepts they represent are increasingly ambiguous. Language is no longer the preferred means by which human beings come to know and encounter one another. Moreover, in the contortions of semantic ambiguity, language is becoming more and more a weapon with which to deceive, or to strike and offend opponents. We need words once again to express distinct and clear realities unequivocally. Only in this way can authentic dialogue resume without misunderstandings. This should happen in our homes and public spaces, in politics, in the media and on social media. It should likewise occur in the context of international relations and multilateralism, so that the latter can regain the strength needed for undertaking its role of encounter and mediation. This is indeed necessary for preventing conflicts, and for ensuring that no one is tempted to prevail over others with the mindset of force, whether verbal, physical or military.
We should also note the paradox that this weakening of language is often invoked in the name of freedom of expression itself. However, on closer inspection, the opposite is true, for freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed precisely by the certainty of language and the fact that every term is anchored in the truth. It is painful to see how, especially in the West, the space for genuine freedom of expression is rapidly shrinking. At the same time, a new Orwellian-style language is developing which, in an attempt to be increasingly inclusive, ends up excluding those who do not conform to the ideologies that are fueling it.
Unfortunately, this leads to other consequences that end up restricting fundamental human rights, starting with the freedom of conscience.”
Secondly – and this is noteworthy, because it shows how closely the Holy Father is following events in the EU – there is a passage in which he not only condemns the practice of abortion, but also expresses his concern and regret about activities which, although not named, are nevertheless easily recognisable as the events surrounding the abortion tourism citizens’ initiative ‘My Voice, My Choice’:
“The vocation to love and to life, which manifests itself in an important way in the exclusive and indissoluble union between a woman and a man, implies a fundamental ethical imperative for enabling families to welcome and fully care for unborn life. This is increasingly a priority, especially in those countries that are experiencing a dramatic decline in birth rates. Life, in fact, is a priceless gift that develops within a committed relationship based on mutual self-giving and service.
In light of this profound vision of life as a gift to be cherished, and of the family as its responsible guardian, we categorically reject any practice that denies or exploits the origin of life and its development. Among these is abortion, which cuts short a growing life and refuses to welcome the gift of life. In this regard, the Holy See expresses deep concern about projects aimed at financing cross-border mobility for the purpose of accessing the so-called “right to safe abortion.” It also considers it deplorable that public resources are allocated to suppress life, rather than being invested to support mothers and families. The primary objective must remain the protection of every unborn child and the effective and concrete support of every woman so that she is able to welcome life.“
When the Pope puts ‘the right to abortion’ in quotation marks, it is of course because this perverse ‘right’ is in fact an injustice, even if deluded politicians have included it into the French constitution and now also want to include it in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. With “projects aimed at financing cross-border mobility” he very clearly means the legally dubious ECI that wants to use EU-funds for the purpose of circumventing the legislation of EU Member States, which, even irrespectively of the fact that this would be done with the heinous intention of facilitating the killing of innocent children, would in itself constitute a grave disloyalty of the EU institutions with regard to its own Member States, and hence a clear-cut misuse of EU funds. And when the Pope deplores that “public resources are allocated to suppress life, rather than being invested to support mothers and families” this seems to be a clear reference to the fact that the European Commissionperversely funds 90% of the operating cost of the child-killer lobby IPPF EN with money that was in the EU budget earmarked to promote “citizenship, values, and rights”, but is now used for diametrically opposed purposes.
It appears that the Holy Father has no illusion about the EU and is so-called “European values”, however deceptive the rhetorics deployed by the EU institutions may be.
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