Life Issues Forum
Respect Life Sunday 2002
by Cardinal Anthony
Bevilacqua
September 27, 2002
On Sunday October 6, the
Catholic Church inaugurates its Respect Life Program, an annual education
effort focusing on the sanctity of human life.
We unveil this year's
program aware that our world has become a more dangerous place. The events of
September 11, 2001 force us to acknowledge that some of our fellow human
beings see no intrinsic value in human life. They believe that innocent lives
are dispensable in the quest to attain political or ideological goals. As Pope
John Paul II reminds us, "terrorism is built on contempt for human life"
(Message for the 2002 World Day of Peace, no. 4).
It would be a
mistake, however, to think that contempt for life exists only in certain parts
of the world, among certain peoples. In The Gulag Archipelago Alexander
Solzhenitsyn describes his gradual realization that "the line separating good
and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political
parties either – but right through every human heart – and through all human
hearts." The roots of contempt for life can sprout in our own hearts when we
forget the God-given dignity of every human being, a dignity inherent in all
from conception to natural death.
Contempt for human life can take many
forms. In our technically advanced society, we are tempted to treat life as
dispensable when it seems to stand in the way of individual freedom or
technical "progress."
Abortion is advanced in the name of freedom, but
it undermines freedom by demeaning life itself. No society can be truly free
if its most vulnerable members can lose their very lives at the hands of
others. And far from giving greater freedom to women, abortion leaves many
women feeling trapped in a deep well of sorrow and remorse.
Ironically, the campaign for "freedom" on abortion has increasingly
taken on a coercive cast. Abortion advocates support China's coercive abortion
program; here at home, they try to force conscientiously opposed health care
providers to be involved in abortion.
Destructive embryo research and
human cloning are promoted in the name of progress. Yet they mark a regress in
researchers' respect for ethical limits. They also divert resources away from
morally acceptable research avenues that are at least as promising. Such
abuses do not bode well for our ability to use the newfound powers of
biotechnology to serve and not demean humanity.
Ignoring the real
threat to human dignity posed by human cloning, some have proposed cloning
"bans" that are nothing of the sort. Rather, such proposals would allow
unlimited cloning of human embryos for destructive research, while banning any
effort to bring these embryos to live birth. In effect, the evil of cloning
would be compounded by the evil of government-mandated killing.
These
and other challenges to life are addressed in this year's Respect Life Program
materials, which I encourage all Catholics to read and discuss. We must inform
ourselves about these issues, understand them in light of the Gospel, and
respond to them with firm commitment and healing compassion.
The
Respect Life Program aims "to bring the Gospel of life to the heart of every
man and woman and to make it penetrate every part of society" (The Gospel
of Life, no. 80). Let us all take an active role in this urgent endeavor,
helping to turn others' hearts toward a renewed reverence for human life at
every stage and condition.
________________________
Cardinal Anthony
Bevilacqua is chairman of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities, U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops
__________________________________
Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities
United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops
3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202)
541-3070