The Gospel of Life
ENCYCLICAL LETTER ADDRESSED BY THE SUPREME
PONTIFF JOHN PAUL II TO THE BISHOPS, PRIESTS
AND DEACONS, MEN AND WOMEN, RELIGIOUS, LAY FAITHFUL
AND ALL PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL ON THE VALUE AND
INVIOLABILITY OF HUMAN LIFE
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
The incomparable worth of the human person
[2]
New threats to human life [3-4]
In communion with all the Bishops of the world
[5-6]
CHAPTER I
THE VOICE OF YOUR BROTHER'S BLOOD CRIES
TO ME FROM THE GROUND
PRESENT-DAY THREATS TO HUMAN LIFE
"Cain rose up against his brother Abel,
and killed him" (Gen 4:8): the roots of
violence against life [7-9]
"What have you done?" (Gen 4:10):
the eclipse of the value of life [10-17]
"Am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen
4:9): a perverse idea of freedom [18-20]
"And from your face I shall be hidden"
(Gen 4:14): the eclipse of the sense of God
and of man [21-24]
"You have come to the sprinkled blood"
(cf. Heb 12:22, 24): signs of hope and invitation
to commitment [25-28]
CHAPTER II
I CAME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE
THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE CONCERNING LIFE
"The life was made manifest, and we saw
it" (1 Jn 1:2): with our gaze fixed on
Christ, "the Word of life" [29-30]
"The Lord is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation" (Ex 15:2):
life is always a good [31]
"The name of Jesus ... has made this man
strong" (Acts 3:16): in the uncertainties
of human life, Jesus brings life's meaning to
fulfilment [32-33]
"Called ... to be conformed to the image
of his Son" (Rom 8:28-29): God's glory
shines on the face of man [34-36]
"Whoever lives and believes in me shall
never die" (Jn 11:26): the gift of eternal
life [37-38]
"From man in regard to his fellow man
I will demand an accounting" (Gen 9:5):
reverence and love for every human life [39-41]
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the
earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28): man's
responsibility for life [42-43]
"For you formed my inmost being"
(Ps 139:13): the dignity of the unborn child
[44-45]
"I kept my faith even when I said, 'I
am greatly afflicted"' (Ps 116:10): life
in old age and at times of suffering [46-47]
"All who hold her fast will live"
(Bar 4:1): from the law of Sinai to the gift
of the Spirit [48-49]
"They shall look on him whom they have
pierced" (Jn 19:37): the Gospel of life
is brought to fulfilment on the tree of the
Cross [50-51]
CHAPTER III
YOU SHALL NOT KILL
GOD'S HOLY LAW
"If you would enter life, keep the commandments"
(Mt 19:17): Gospel and commandment [52]
"From man in regard to his fellow man
I will demand an accounting for human life"
(Gen 9:5): human life is sacred and inviolable
[53-57]
"Your eyes beheld my unformed substance"
(Ps 139:16): the unspeakable crime of abortion
[58-63]
"It is I who bring both death and life"
(Dt 32:39): the tragedy of euthanasia [64-67]
"We must obey God rather than men"
(Acts 5:29): civil law and the moral law [68-74]
"You shall love your neighbour as yourself"
(Lk 10:27): "promote" life [75-77]
CHAPTER IV
YOU DID IT TO ME
FOR A NEW CULTURE OF HUMAN LIFE
"You are God's own people, that you may
declare the wonderful deeds of him who called
you out of darkness into his marvellous light"
(1 Pet 2:9): a people of life and for life [78-79]
"That which we have seen and heard we
proclaim also to you" (1 Jn 1:3): proclaiming
the Gospel of life [80-82]
"I give you thanks that I am fearfully,
wonderfully made" (Ps 139:14): celebrating
the Gospel of life [83-86]
"What does it profit, my brethren, if
a man says he has faith but has not works?"
(Jas 2:14): serving the Gospel of life [87-91]
"Your children will be like olive shoots
around your table" (Ps 128:3): the family
as the "sanctuary of life" [92-94]
"Walk as children of light" (Eph
5:8): bringing about a transformation of culture
[95-100]
"We are writing this that our joy may
be complete" (1 Jn 1:4): the Gospel of
life is for the whole of human society [101-102].
CONCLUSION
"A great portent appeared in heaven, a
woman clothed with the sun" (Rev 12:1):
the motherhood of Mary and of the Church [103]
"And the dragon stood before the woman
... that he might devour her child when she
brought it forth" (Rev 12:4): life menaced
by the forces of evil [104]
"Death shall be no more" (Rev 21:4):
the splendour of the Resurrection [105]
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EVANGELIUM VITAE
INTRODUCTION
1. THE GOSPEL OF LIFE is at
the heart of Jesus' message. Lovingly received
day after day by the Church, it is to be preached
with dauntless fidelity as "good news"
to the people of every age and culture.
At the dawn of salvation, it is the Birth of
a Child which is proclaimed as joyful news:
"I bring you good news of a great joy which
will come to all the people; for to you is born
this day in the city of David a Saviour, who
is. Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:10-11). The
source of this "great joy" is the
Birth of the Saviour; but Christmas also reveals
the full meaning of every human birth, and the
joy which accompanies the Birth of the Messiah
is thus seen to be the foundation and fulfilment
of joy at every child born into the world (cf.
Jn 16:21).
When he presents the heart of his redemptive
mission, Jesus says: "I came that they
may have life, and have it abundantly"
(Jn 10:10). In truth, he is referring to that
"new" and "eternal" life
which consists in communion with the Father,
to which every person is freely called in the
Son by the power of the Sanctifying Spirit.
It is precisely in this "life" that
all the aspects and stages of human life achieve
their full significance.
The incomparable worth of the human person
2. Man is called to a fullness
of life which far exceeds the dimensions of
his earthly existence, because it consists in
sharing the very life of God. The loftiness
of this supernatural vocation reveals the greatness
and the inestimable value of human life even
in its temporal phase. Life in time, in fact,
is the fundamental condition, the initial stage
and an integral part of the entire unified process
of human existence. It is a process which, unexpectedly
and undeservedly, is enlightened by the promise
and renewed by the gift of divine life, which
will reach its full realization in eternity
(cf. 1 Jn 3:1-2). At the same time, it is precisely
this supernatural calling which highlights the
relative character of each individual's earthly
life. After all, life on earth is not an "ultimate"
but a "penultimate" reality; even
so, it remains a sacred reality entrusted to
us, to be preserved with a sense of responsibility
and brought to perfection in love and in the
gift of ourselves to God and to our brothers
and sisters.
The Church knows that this Gospel of life,
which she has received from her Lord,[1] has
a profound and persuasive echo in the heart
of every person--believer and non-believer alike--because
it marvellously fulfils all the heart's expectations
while infinitely surpassing them. Even in the
midst of difficulties and uncertainties, every
person sincerely open to truth and goodness
can, by the light of reason and the hidden action
of grace, come to recognize in the natural law
written in the heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15) the sacred
value of human life from its very beginning
until its end, and can affirm the right of every
human being to have this primary good respected
to the highest degree. Upon the recognition
of this right, every human community and the
political community itself are founded.
In a special way, believers in Christ must
defend and promote this right, aware as they
are of the wonderful truth recalled by the Second
Vatican Council: "By his incarnation the
Son of God has united himself in some fashion
with every human being".[2] This saving
event reveals to humanity not only the boundless
love of God who "so loved the world that
he gave his only Son" (Jn 3:16), but also
the incomparable value of every human person.
The Church, faithfully contemplating the mystery
of the Redemption, acknowledges this value with
ever new wonder.[3] She feels called to proclaim
to the people of all times this "Gospel",
the source of invincible hope and true joy for
every period of history. The Gospel of God's
love for man, the Gospel of the dignity of the
person and the Gospel of life are a single and
indivisible Gospel.
For this reason, man--living man--represents
the primary and fundamental way for the Church.[4]
New threats to human life
3. Every individual, precisely
by reason of the mystery of the Word of God
who was made flesh (cf. Jn 1:14), is entrusted
to the maternal care of the Church. Therefore
every threat to human dignity and life must
necessarily be felt in the Church's very heart;
it cannot but affect her at the core of her
faith in the Redemptive Incarnation of the Son
of God, and engage her in her mission of proclaiming
the Gospel of life in all the world and to every
creature (cf. Mk 16:15).
Today this proclamation is especially pressing
because of the extraordinary increase and gravity
of threats to the life of individuals and peoples,
especially where life is weak and defenceless.
In addition to the ancient scourges of poverty,
hunger, endemic diseases, violence and war,
new threats are emerging on an alarmingly vast
scale.
The Second Vatican Council, in a passage which
retains all its relevance today, forcefully
condemned a number of crimes and attacks against
human life. Thirty years later, taking up the
words of the Council and with the same forcefulness
I repeat that condemnation in the name of the
whole Church, certain that I am interpreting
the genuine sentiment of every upright conscience:
"Whatever is opposed to life itself, such
as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia,
or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates
the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation,
torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts
to coerce the will itself; whatever insults
human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions,
arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery,
prostitution, the selling of women and children;
as well as disgraceful working conditions, where
people are treated as mere instruments of gain
rather than as free and responsible persons;
all these things and others like them are infamies
indeed. They poison human society, and they
do more harm to those who practise them than
to those who suffer from the injury. Moreover,
they are a supreme dishonour to the Creator".[5]
4. Unfortunately, this disturbing
state of affairs, far from decreasing, is expanding:
with the new prospects opened up by scientific
and technological progress there arise new forms
of attacks on the dignity of the human being.
At the same time a new cultural climate is developing
and taking hold, which gives crimes against
life a new and--if possible--even more sinister
character, giving rise to further grave concern:
broad sectors of public opinion justify certain
crimes against life in the name of the rights
of individual freedom, and on this basis they
claim not only exemption from punishment but
even authorization by the State, so that these
things can be done with total freedom and indeed
with the free assistance of health-care systems.
All this is causing a profound change in the
way in which life and relationships between
people are considered. The fact that legislation
in many countries, perhaps even departing from
basic principles of their Constitutions, has
determined not to punish these practices against
life, and even to make them altogether legal,
is both a disturbing symptom and a significant
cause of grave moral decline. Choices once unanimously
considered criminal and rejected by the common
moral sense are gradually becoming socially
acceptable. Even certain sectors of the medical
profession, which by its calling is directed
to the defence and care of human life, are increasingly
willing to carry out these acts against the
person. In this way the very nature of the medical
profession is distorted and contradicted, and
the dignity of those who practise it is degraded.
In such a cultural and legislative situation,
the serious demographic, social and family problems
which weigh upon many of the world's peoples
and which require responsible and effective
attention from national and international bodies,
are left open to false and deceptive solutions,
opposed to the truth and the good of persons
and nations.
The end result of this is tragic: not only
is the fact of the destruction of so many human
lives still to be born or in their final stage
extremely grave and disturbing, but no less
grave and disturbing is the fact that conscience
itself, darkened as it were by such widespread
conditioning, is finding it increasingly difficult
to distinguish between good and evil in what
concerns the basic value of human life.
In communion with all the Bishops of the world
5. The Extraordinary Consistory
of Cardinals held in Rome on 4-7 April 1991
was devoted to the problem of the threats to
human life in our day. After a thorough and
detailed discussion of the problem and of the
challenges it poses to the entire human family
and in particular to the Christian community,
the Cardinals unanimously asked me to reaffirm
with the authority of the Successor of Peter
the value of human life and its inviolability,
in the light of present circumstances and attacks
threatening it today.
In response to this request, at Pentecost in
1991 I wrote a personal letter to each of my
Brother Bishops asking them, in the spirit of
episcopal collegiality, to offer me their cooperation
in drawing up a specific document.[6] I am deeply
grateful to all the Bishops who replied and
provided me with valuable facts, suggestions
and proposals. In so doing they bore witness
to their unanimous desire to share in the doctrinal
and pastoral mission of the Church with regard
to the Gospel of life.
In that same letter, written shortly after
the celebration of the centenary of the Encyclical
Rerum Novarum, I drew everyone's attention to
this striking analogy: "Just as a century
ago it was the working classes which were oppressed
in their fundamental rights, and the Church
very courageously came to their defence by proclaiming
the sacrosanct rights of the worker as a person,
so now, when another category of persons is
being oppressed in the fundamental right to
life, the Church feels in duty bound to speak
out with the same courage on behalf of those
who have no voice. Hers is always the evangelical
cry in defence of the world's poor, those who
are threatened and despised and whose human
rights are violated".[7]
Today there exists a great multitude of weak
and defenceless human beings, unborn children
in particular, whose fundamental right to life
is being trampled upon. If, at the end of the
last century, the Church could not be silent
about the injustices of those times, still less
can she be silent today, when the social injustices
of the past, unfortunately not yet overcome,
are being compounded in many regions of the
world by still more grievous forms of injustice
and oppression, even if these are being presented
as elements of progress in view of a new world
order.
The present Encyclical, the fruit of the cooperation
of the Episcopate of every country of the world,
is therefore meant to be a precise and vigorous
reaffirmation of the value of human life and
its inviolability, and at the same time a pressing
appeal addressed to each and every person, in
the name of God: respect, protect, love and
serve life, every human life! Only in this direction
will you find justice, development, true freedom,
peace and happiness!
May these words reach all the sons and daughters
of the Church! May they reach all people of
good will who are concerned for the good of
every man and woman and for the destiny of the
whole of society!
6. In profound communion with
all my brothers and sisters in the faith, and
inspired by genuine friendship towards all,
I wish to meditate upon once more and proclaim
the Gospel of life, the splendour of truth which
enlightens consciences, the clear light which
corrects the darkened gaze, and the unfailing
source of faithfulness and steadfastness in
facing the ever new challenges which we meet
along our path.
As I recall the powerful experience of the
Year of the Family, as if to complete the Letter
which I wrote "to every particular family
in every part of the world",[8] I look
with renewed confidence to every household and
I pray that at every level a general commitment
to support the family will reappear and be strengthened,
so that today too--even amid so many difficulties
and serious threats--the family will always
remain, in accordance with God's plan, the "sanctuary
of life".[9]
To all the members of the Church, the people
of life and for life, I make this most urgent
appeal, that together we may offer this world
of ours new signs of hope, and work to ensure
that justice and solidarity will increase and
that a new culture of human life will be affirmed,
for the building of an authentic civilization
of truth and love.
CHAPTER I
THE VOICE OF YOUR BROTHER'S BLOOD CRIES
TO ME FROM THE GROUND
PRESENT-DAY THREATS TO HUMAN LIFE
"Cain rose up against his brother Abel,
and killed him" (Gen 4:8): the roots of
violence against life
7. "God did not make
death, and he does not delight in the death
of the living. For he has created all things
that they might exist... God created man for
incorruption, and made him in the image of his
own eternity, but through the devil's envy death
entered the world, and those who belong to his
party experience it" (Wis 1:13-14; 2:23-24).
The Gospel of life, proclaimed in the beginning
when man was created in the image of God for
a destiny of full and perfect life (cf. Gen
2:7; Wis 9:2-3), is contradicted by the painful
experience of death which enters the world and
casts its shadow of meaninglessness over man's
entire existence. Death came into the world
as a result of the devil's envy (cf. Gen 3:1,4-5)
and the sin of our first parents (cf. Gen 2:17,
3:17-19). And death entered it in a violent
way, through the killing of Abel by his brother
Cain: "And when they were in the field,
Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed
him" (Gen 4:8).
This first murder is presented with singular
eloquence in a page of the Book of Genesis which
has universal significance: it is a page rewritten
daily, with inexorable and degrading frequency,
in the book of human history.
Let us re-read together this biblical account
which, despite its archaic structure and its
extreme simplicity, has much to teach us.
"Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain
a tiller of the ground. In the course of time
Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the
fruit of the ground, and Abel brought of the
firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions.
And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
but for Cain and his offering he had not regard.
So Cain was very angry, and his countenance
fell. The Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry
and why has your countenance fallen? If you
do well, will you not be accepted? And if you
do not do well, sin is crouching at the door;
its desire is for you, but you must master it'.
"Cain said to Abel his brother, 'Let us
go out to the field'. And when they were in
the field, Cain rose up against his brother
Abel, and killed him. Then the Lord said to
Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' He said,
I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?' And
the Lord said, 'What have you done? The voice
of your brother's blood is crying to me from
the ground. And now you are cursed from the
ground, which has opened its mouth to receive
your brother's blood from your hand. When you
till the ground, it shall no longer yield to
you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and
a wanderer on the earth'. Cain said to the Lord,
'My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold,
you have driven me this day away from the ground;
and from your face I shall be hidden; and I
shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth,
and whoever finds me will slay me'. Then the
Lord said to him, 'Not so! If any one slays
Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold'.
And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who
came upon him should kill him. Then Cain went
away from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt
in the land of Nod, east of Eden" (Gen
4:2-16).
8. Cain was "very angry"
and his countenance "fell" because
"the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering"
(Gen 4:4-5). The biblical text does not reveal
the reason why God prefers Abel's sacrifice
to Cain's. It clearly shows however that God,
although preferring Abel's gift, does not interrupt
his dialogue with Cain. He admonishes him, reminding
him of his freedom in the face of evil: man
is in no way predestined to evil. Certainly,
like Adam, he is tempted by the malevolent force
of sin which, like a wild beast, lies in wait
at the door of his heart, ready to leap on its
prey. But Cain remains free in the face of sin.
He can and must overcome it: "Its desire
is for you, but you must master it" (Gen
4:7).
Envy and anger have the upper hand over the
Lord's warning, and so Cain attacks his own
brother and kills him. As we read in the Catechism
of the Catholic Church: "In the account
of Abel's murder by his brother Cain, Scripture
reveals the presence of anger and envy in man,
consequences of original sin, from the beginning
of human history. Man has become the enemy of
his fellow man"[10]
Brother kills brother. Like the first fratricide,
every murder is a violation of the "spiritual"
kinship uniting mankind in one great family,[11]
in which all share the same fundamental good:
equal personal dignity. Not infrequently the
kinship "of flesh and blood" is also
violated; for example when threats to life arise
within the relationship between parents and
children, such as happens in abortion or when,
in the wider context of family or kinship, euthanasia
is encouraged or practised.
At the root of every act of violence against
one's neighbour there is a concession to the
"thinking" of the evil one, the one
who "was a murderer from the beginning"
(Jn 8:44). As the Apostle John reminds us: "For
this is the message which you have heard from
the beginning, that we should love one another,
and not be like Cain who was of the evil one
and murdered his brother" (1 Jn 3:11-12).
Cain's killing of his brother at the very dawn
of history is thus a sad witness of how evil
spreads with amazing speed: man's revolt against
God in the earthly paradise is followed by the
deadly combat of man against man.
After the crime, God intervenes to avenge the
one killed. Before God, who asks him about the
fate of Abel, Cain, instead of showing remorse
and apologizing, arrogantly eludes the question:
"I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?"
(Gen 4:9). "I do not know": Cain tries
to cover up his crime with a lie. This was and
still is the case, when all kinds of ideologies
try to justify and disguise the most atrocious
crimes against human beings. "Am I my brother's
keeper?": Cain does not wish to think about
his brother and refuses to accept the responsibility
which every person has towards others. We cannot
but think of today's tendency for people to
refuse to accept responsibility for their brothers
and sisters. Symptoms of this trend include
the lack of solidarity towards society's weakest
members--such as the elderly, the infirm, immigrants,
children--and the indifference frequently found
in relations between the world's peoples even
when basic values such as survival, freedom
and peace are involved.
9. But God cannot leave the
crime unpunished: from the ground on which it
has been spilt, the blood of the one murdered
demands that God should render justice (cf.
Gen 37:26; Is 26:21; Ez 24:7-8). From this text
the Church has taken the name of the "sins
which cry to God for justice", and, first
among them, she has included wilful murder.[12]
For the Jewish people, as for many peoples of
antiquity, blood is the source of life. Indeed
"the blood is the life" (Dt 12:23),
and life, especially human life, belongs only
to God: for this reason whoever attacks human
life, in some way attacks God himself.
Cain is cursed by God and also by the earth,
which will deny him its fruit (cf. Gen 4: 12).
He is punished: he will live in the wilderness
and the desert. Murderous violence profoundly
changes man's environment. From being the "garden
of Eden" (Gen 2:15), a place of plenty,
of harmonious interpersonal relationships and
of friendship with God, the earth becomes "the
land of Nod" (Gen 4:16), a place of scarcity,
loneliness and separation from God. Cain will
be "a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth"
(Gen 4:14): uncertainty and restlessness will
follow him forever.
And yet God, who is always merciful even when
he punishes, "put a mark on Cain, lest
any who came upon him should kill him"
(Gen 4:15). He thus gave him a distinctive sign,
not to condemn him to the hatred of others,
but to protect and defend him from those wishing
to kill him, even out of a desire to avenge
Abel's death. Not even a murderer loses his
personal dignity, and God himself pledges to
guarantee this. And it is precisely here that
the paradoxical mystery of the merciful justice
of God is shown forth. As Saint Ambrose writes:
"Once the crime is admitted at the very
inception of this sinful act of parricide, then
the divine law of God's mercy should be immediately
extended. If punishment is forthwith inflicted
on the accused, then men in the exercise of
justice would in no way observe patience and
moderation, but would straightaway condemn the
defendant to punishment.... God drove Cain out
of his presence and sent him into exile far
away from his native land, so that he passed
from a life of human kindness to one which was
more akin to the rude existence of a wild beast.
God, who preferred the correction rather than
the death of a sinner, did not desire that a
homicide be punished by the exaction of another
act of homicide".[13]
"What have you done?" (Gen 4:10):
the eclipse of the value of life
10. The Lord said to Cain:
"What have you done? The voice of your
brother's blood is crying to me from the ground"
(Gen 4:10). The voice of the blood shed by men
continues to cry out, from generation to generation,
in ever new and different ways.
The Lord's question: "What have you done?",
which Cain cannot escape, is addressed also
to the people of today, to make them realize
the extent and gravity of the attacks against
life which continue to mark human history; to
make them discover what causes these attacks
and feeds them; and to make them ponder seriously
the consequences which derive from these attacks
for the existence of individuals and peoples.
Some threats come from nature itself, but they
are made worse by the culpable indifference
and negligence of those who could in some cases
remedy them. Others are the result of situations
of violence, hatred and conflicting interests,
which lead people to attack others through murder,
war, slaughter and genocide.
And how can we fail to consider the violence
against life done to millions of human beings,
especially children, who are forced into poverty,
malnutrition and hunger because of an unjust
distribution of resources between peoples and
between social classes? And what of the violence
inherent not only in wars as such but in the
scandalous arms trade, which spawns the many
armed conflicts which stain our world with blood?
What of the spreading of death caused by reckless
tampering with the world's ecological balance,
by the criminal spread of drugs, or by the promotion
of certain kinds of sexual activity which, besides
being morally unacceptable, also involve grave
risks to life? It is impossible to catalogue
completely the vast array of threats to human
life, so many are the forms, whether explicit
or hidden, in which they appear today!
11. Here though we shall concentrate
particular attention on another category of
attacks, affecting life in its earliest and
in its final stages, attacks which present new
characteristics with respect to the past and
which raise questions of extraordinary seriousness.
It is not only that in generalized opinion these
attacks tend no longer to be considered as "crimes";
paradoxically they assume the nature of "rights",
to the point that the State is called upon to
give them legal recognition and to make them
available through the free services of health-care
personnel. Such attacks strike human life at
the time of its greatest frailty, when it lacks
any means of self-defence. Even more serious
is the fact that, most often, those attacks
are carried out in the very heart of and with
the complicity of the family--the family which
by its nature is called to be the "sanctuary
of life".
How did such a situation come about? Many different
factors have to be taken into account. In the
background there is the profound crisis of culture,
which generates scepticism in relation to the
very foundations of knowledge and ethics, and
which makes it increasingly difficult to grasp
clearly the meaning of what man is, the meaning
of his rights and his duties. Then there are
all kinds of existential and interpersonal difficulties,
made worse by the complexity of a society in
which individuals, couples and families are
often left alone with their problems. There
are situations of acute poverty, anxiety or
frustration in which the struggle to make ends
meet, the presence of unbearable pain, or instances
of violence, especially against women, make
the choice to defend and promote life so demanding
as sometimes to reach the point of heroism.
All this explains, at least in part, how the
value of life can today undergo a kind of "eclipse",
even though conscience does not cease to point
to it as a sacred and inviolable value, as is
evident in the tendency to disguise certain
crimes against life in its early or final stages
by using innocuous medical terms which distract
attention from the fact that what is involved
is the right to life of an actual human person.
12. In fact, while the climate
of widespread moral uncertainty can in some
way be explained by the multiplicity and gravity
of today's social problems, and these can sometimes
mitigate the subjective responsibility of individuals,
it is no less true that we are confronted by
an even larger reality, which can be described
as a veritable structure of sin. This reality
is characterized by the emergence of a culture
which denies solidarity and in many cases takes
the form of a veritable "culture of death".
This culture is actively fostered by powerful
cultural, economic and political currents which
encourage an idea of society excessively concerned
with efficiency. Looking at the situation from
this point of view, it is possible to speak
in a certain sense of a war of the powerful
against the weak: a life which would require
greater acceptance, love and care is considered
useless, or held to be an intolerable burden,
and is therefore rejected in one way or another.
A person who, because of illness, handicap or,
more simply, just by existing, compromises the
well-being or life-style of those who are more
favoured tends to be looked upon as an enemy
to be resisted or eliminated. In this way a
kind of "conspiracy against life"
is unleashed. This conspiracy involves not only
individuals in their personal, family or group
relationships, but goes far beyond, to the point
of damaging and distorting, at the international
level, relations between peoples and States.
13. In order to facilitate
the spread of abortion, enormous sums of money
have been invested and continue to be invested
in the production of pharmaceutical products
which make it possible to kill the fetus in
the mother's womb without recourse to medical
assistance. On this point, scientific research
itself seems to be almost exclusively preoccupied
with developing products which are ever more
simple and effective in suppressing life and
which at the same time are capable of removing
abortion from any kind of control or social
responsibility.
It is frequently asserted that contraception,
if made safe and available to all, is the most
effective remedy against abortion. The Catholic
Church is then accused of actually promoting
abortion, because she obstinately continues
to teach the moral unlawfulness of contraception.
When looked at carefully, this objection is
clearly unfounded. It may be that many people
use contraception with a view to excluding the
subsequent temptation of abortion. But the negative
values inherent in the "contraceptive mentality"--which
is very different from responsible parenthood,
lived in respect for the full truth of the conjugal
act--are such that they in fact strengthen this
temptation when an unwanted life is conceived.
Indeed, the pro-abortion culture is especially
strong precisely where the Church's teaching
on contraception is rejected. Certainly, from
the moral point of view contraception and abortion
are specifically different evils: the former
contradicts the full truth of the sexual act
as the proper expression of conjugal love, while
the latter destroys the life of a human being;
the former is opposed to the virtue of chastity
in marriage, the latter is opposed to the virtue
of justice and directly violates the divine
commandment "You shall not kill".
But despite their differences of nature and
moral gravity, contraception and abortion are
often closely connected, as fruits of the same
tree. It is true that in many cases contraception
and even abortion are practised under the pressure
of real-life difficulties, which nonetheless
can never exonerate from striving to observe
God's law fully. Still, in very many other instances
such practices are rooted in a hedonistic mentality
unwilling to accept responsibility in matters
of sexuality, and they imply a self-centered
concept of freedom, which regards procreation
as an obstacle to personal fulfilment. The life
which could result from a sexual encounter thus
becomes an enemy to be avoided at all costs,
and abortion becomes the only possible decisive
response to failed contraception.
The close connection which exists, in mentality,
between the practice of contraception and that
of abortion is becoming increasingly obvious.
It is being demonstrated in an alarming way
by the development of chemical products, intrauterine
devices and vaccines which, distributed with
the same ease as contraceptives, really act
as abortifacients in the very early stages of
the development of the life of the new human
being.
14. The various techniques
of artificial reproduction, which would seem
to be at the service of life and which are frequently
used with this intention, actually open the
door to new threats against life. Apart from
the fact that they are morally unacceptable,
since they separate procreation from the fully
human context of the conjugal act,[14] these
techniques have a high rate of failure: not
just failure in relation to fertilization but
with regard to the subsequent development of
the embryo, which is exposed to the risk of
death, generally within a very short space of
time. Furthermore, the number of embryos produced
is often greater than that needed for implantation
in the woman's womb, and these so-called "spare
embryos" are then destroyed or used for
research which, under the pretext of scientific
or medical progress, in fact reduces human life
to the level of simple "biological material"
to be freely disposed of.
Prenatal diagnosis, which presents no moral
objections if carried out in order to identify
the medical treatment which may be needed by
the child in the womb, all too often becomes
an opportunity for proposing and procuring an
abortion. This is eugenic abortion, justified
in public opinion on the basis of a mentality--mistakenly
held to be consistent with the demands of "therapeutic
interventions"--which accepts life only
under certain conditions and rejects it when
it is affected by any limitation, handicap or
illness.
Following this same logic, the point has been
reached where the most basic care, even nourishment,
is denied to babies born with serious handicaps
or illnesses. The contemporary scene, moreover,
is becoming even more alarming by reason of
the proposals, advanced here and there, to justify
even infanticide, following the same arguments
used to justify the right to abortion. In this
way, we revert to a state of barbarism which
one hoped had been left behind forever.
15. Threats which are no less
serious hang over the incurably ill and the
dying. In a social and cultural context which
makes it more difficult to face and accept suffering,
the temptation becomes all the greater to resolve
the problem of suffering by eliminating it at
the root, by hastening death so that it occurs
at the moment considered most suitable.
Various considerations usually contribute to
such a decision, all of which converge in the
same terrible outcome. In the sick person the
sense of anguish, of severe discomfort, and
even of desperation brought on by intense and
prolonged suffering can be a decisive factor.
Such a situation can threaten the already fragile
equilibrium of an individual's personal and
family life, with the result that, on the one
hand, the sick person, despite the help of increasingly
effective medical and social assistance, risks
feeling overwhelmed by his or her own frailty;
and on the other hand, those close to the sick
person can be moved by an understandable even
if misplaced compassion. All this is aggravated
by a cultural climate which fails to perceive
any meaning or value in suffering, but rather
considers suffering the epitome of evil, to
be eliminated at all costs. This is especially
the case in the absence of a religious outlook
which could help to provide a positive understanding
of the mystery of suffering.
On a more general level, there exists in contemporary
culture a certain Promethean attitude which
leads people to think that they can control
life and death by taking the decisions about
them into their own hands. What really happens
in this case is that the individual is overcome
and crushed by a death deprived of any prospect
of meaning or hope. We see a tragic expression
of all this in the spread of euthanasia--disguised
and surreptitious, or practised openly and even
legally. As well as for reasons of a misguided
pity at the sight of the patient's suffering,
euthanasia is sometimes justified by the utilitarian
motive of avoiding costs which bring no return
and which weigh heavily on society. Thus it
is proposed to eliminate malformed babies, the
severely handicapped, the disabled, the elderly,
especially when they are not self-sufficient,
and the terminally ill. Nor can we remain silent
in the face of other more furtive, but no less
serious and real, forms of euthanasia. These
could occur for example when, in order to increase
the availability of organs for transplants,
organs are removed without respecting objective
and adequate criteria which verify the death
of the donor.
16. Another present-day phenomenon,
frequently used to justify threats and attacks
against life, is the demographic question. This
question arises in different ways in different
parts of the world. In the rich and developed
countries there is a disturbing decline or collapse
of the birthrate. The poorer countries, on the
other hand, generally have a high rate of population
growth, difficult to sustain in the context
of low economic and social development, and
especially where there is extreme underdevelopment.
In the face of overpopulation in the poorer
countries, instead of forms of global intervention
at the international level--serious family and
social policies, programmes of cultural development
and of fair production and distribution of resources--anti-birth
policies continue to be enacted.
Contraception, sterilization and abortion are
certainly part of the reason why in some cases
there is a sharp decline in the birthrate. It
is not difficult to be tempted to use the same
methods and attacks against life also where
there is a situation of "demographic explosion".
The Pharaoh of old, haunted by the presence
and increase of the children of Israel, submitted
them to every kind of oppression and ordered
that every male child born of the Hebrew women
was to be killed (cf. Ex 1:7-22). Today not
a few of the powerful of the earth act in the
same way. They too are haunted by the current
demographic growth, and fear that the most prolific
and poorest peoples represent a threat for the
well-being and peace of their own countries.
Consequently, rather than wishing to face and
solve these serious problems with respect for
the dignity of individuals and families and
for every person's inviolable right to life,
they prefer to promote and impose by whatever
means a massive programme of birth control.
Even the economic help which they would be ready
to give is unjustly made conditional on the
acceptance of an anti-birth policy.
17. Humanity today offers
us a truly alarming spectacle, if we consider
not only how extensively attacks on life are
spreading but also their unheard-of numerical
proportion, and the fact that they receive widespread
and powerful support from a broad consensus
on the part of society, from widespread legal
approval and the involvement of certain sectors
of health-care personnel.
As I emphatically stated at Denver, on the
occasion of the Eighth World Youth Day, "with
time the threats against life have not grown
weaker. They are taking on vast proportions.
They are not only threats coming from the outside,
from the forces of nature or the 'Cains' who
kill the 'Abels'; no, they are scientifically
and systematically programmed threats. The twentieth
century will have been an era of massive attacks
on life, an endless series of wars and a continual
taking of innocent human life. False prophets
and false teachers have had the greatest success".[15]
Aside from intentions, which can be varied and
perhaps can seem convincing at times, especially
if presented in the name of solidarity, we are
in fact faced by an objective "conspiracy
against life", involving even international
Institutions, engaged in encouraging and carrying
out actual campaigns to make contraception,
sterilization and abortion widely available.
Nor can it be denied that the mass media are
often implicated in this conspiracy, by lending
credit to that culture which presents recourse
to contraception, sterilization, abortion and
even euthanasia as a mark of progress and a
victory of freedom, while depicting as enemies
of freedom and progress those positions which
are unreservedly pro-life.
"Am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen
4:9): a perverse idea of freedom
18. The panorama described
needs to be understood not only in terms of
the phenomena of death which characterize it
but also in the variety of causes which determine
it. The Lord's question: "What have you
done?" (Gen 4:10), seems almost like an
invitation addressed to Cain to go beyond the
material dimension of his murderous gesture,
in order to recognize in it all the gravity
of the motives which occasioned it and the consequences
which result from it.
Decisions that go against life sometimes arise
from difficult or even tragic situations of
profound suffering, loneliness, a total lack
of economic prospects, depression and anxiety
about the future. Such circumstances can mitigate
even to a notable degree subjective responsibility
and the consequent culpability of those who
make these choices which in themselves are evil.
But today the problem goes far beyond the necessary
recognition of these personal situations. It
is a problem which exists at the cultural, social
and political level, where it reveals its more
sinister and disturbing aspect in the tendency,
ever more widely shared, to interpret the above
crimes against life as legitimate expressions
of individual freedom, to be acknowledged and
protected as actual rights.
In this way, and with tragic consequences,
a long historical process is reaching a turning-point.
The process which once led to discovering the
idea of "human rights"-- rights inherent
in every person and prior to any Constitution
and State legislation--is today marked by a
surprising contradiction. Precisely in an age
when the inviolable rights of the person are
solemnly proclaimed and the value of life is
publicly affirmed, the very right to life is
being denied or trampled upon, especially at
the more significant moments of existence: the
moment of birth and the moment of death.
On the one hand, the various declarations of
human rights and the many initiatives inspired
by these declarations show that at the global
level there is a growing moral sensitivity,
more alert to acknowledging the value and dignity
of every individual as a human being, without
any distinction of race, nationality, religion,
political opinion or social class.
On the other hand, these noble proclamations
are unfortunately contradicted by a tragic repudiation
of them in practice. This denial is still more
distressing, indeed more scandalous, precisely
because it is occurring in a society which makes
the affirmation and protection of human rights
its primary objective and its boast. How can
these repeated affirmations of principle be
reconciled with the continual increase and widespread
justification of attacks on human life? How
can we reconcile these declarations with the
refusal to accept those who are weak and needy,
or elderly, or those who have just been conceived?
These attacks go directly against respect for
life and they represent a direct threat to the
entire culture of human rights. It is a threat
capable, in the end, of jeopardizing the very
meaning of democratic coexistence: rather than
societies of "people living together",
our cities risk becoming societies of people
who are rejected, marginalized, uprooted and
oppressed. If we then look at the wider worldwide
perspective, how can we fail to think that the
very affirmation of the rights of individuals
and peoples made in distinguished international
assemblies is a merely futile exercise of rhetoric,
if we fail to unmask the selfishness of the
rich countries which exclude poorer countries
from access to development or make such access
dependent on arbitrary prohibitions against
procreation, setting up an opposition between
development and man himself? Should we not question
the very economic models often adopted by States
which, also as a result of international pressures
and forms of conditioning, cause and aggravate
situations of injustice and violence in which
the life of whole peoples is degraded and trampled
upon?
19. What are the roots of
this remarkable contradiction?
We can find them in an overall assessment of
a cultural and moral nature, beginning with
the mentality which carries the concept of subjectivity
to an extreme and even distorts it, and recognizes
as a subject of rights only the person who enjoys
full or at least incipient autonomy and who
emerges from a state of total dependence on
others. But how can we reconcile this approach
with the exaltation of man as a being who is
"not to be used"? The theory of human
rights is based precisely on the affirmation
that the human person, unlike animals and things,
cannot be subjected to domination by others.
We must also mention the mentality which tends
to equate personal dignity with the capacity
for verbal and explicit, or at least perceptible,
communication. It is clear that on the basis
of these presuppositions there is no place in
the world for anyone who, like the unborn or
the dying, is a weak element in the social structure,
or for anyone who appears completely at the
mercy of others and radically dependent on them,
and can only communicate through the silent
language of a profound sharing of affection.
In this case it is force which becomes the criterion
for choice and action in interpersonal relations
and in social life. But this is the exact opposite
of what a State ruled by law, as a community
in which the "reasons of force" are
replaced by the "force of reason",
historically intended to affirm.
At another level, the roots of the contradiction
between the solemn affirmation of human rights
and their tragic denial in practice lies in
a notion of freedom which exalts the isolated
individual in an absolute way, and gives no
place to solidarity, to openness to others and
service of them. While it is true that the taking
of life not yet born or in its final stages
is sometimes marked by a mistaken sense of altruism
and human compassion, it cannot be denied that
such a culture of death, taken as a whole, betrays
a completely individualistic concept of freedom,
which ends up by becoming the freedom of "the
strong" against the weak who have no choice
but to submit.
It is precisely in this sense that Cain's answer
to the Lord's question: "Where is Abel
your brother?" can be interpreted: "I
do not know; am I my brother's keeper?"
(Gen 4:9). Yes, every man is his "brother's
keeper", because God entrusts us to one
another. And it is also in view of this entrusting
that God gives everyone freedom, a freedom which
possesses an inherently relational dimension.
This is a great gift of the Creator, placed
as it is at the service of the person and of
his fulfilment through the gift of self and
openness to others; but when freedom is made
absolute in an individualistic way, it is emptied
of its original content, and its very meaning
and dignity are contradicted.
There is an even more profound aspect which
needs to be emphasized: freedom negates and
destroys itself, and becomes a factor leading
to the destruction of others, when it no longer
recognizes and respects its essential link with
the truth. When freedom, out of a desire to
emancipate itself from all forms of tradition
and authority, shuts out even the most obvious
evidence of an objective and universal truth,
which is the foundation of personal and social
life, then the person ends up by no longer taking
as the sole and indisputable point of reference
for his own choices the truth about good and
evil, but only his subjective and changeable
opinion or, indeed, his selfish interest and
whim.
20. This view of freedom leads
to a serious distortion of life in society.
If the promotion of the self is understood in
terms of absolute autonomy, people inevitably
reach the point of rejecting one another. Everyone
else is considered an enemy from whom one has
to defend oneself. Thus society becomes a mass
of individuals placed side by side, but without
any mutual bonds. Each one wishes to assert
himself independently of the other and in fact
intends to make his own interests prevail. Still,
in the face of other people's analogous interests,
some kind of compromise must be found, if one
wants a society in which the maximum possible
freedom is guaranteed to each individual. In
this way, any reference to common values and
to a truth absolutely binding on everyone is
lost, and social life ventures on to the shifting
sands of complete relativism. At that point,
everything is negotiable, everything is open
to bargaining: even the first of the fundamental
rights, the right to life.
This is what is happening also at the level
of politics and government: the original and
inalienable right to life is questioned or denied
on the basis of a parliamentary vote or the
will of one part of the people--even if it is
the majority. This is the sinister result of
a relativism which reigns unopposed: the "right"
ceases to be such, because it is no longer firmly
founded on the inviolable dignity of the person,
but is made subject to the will of the stronger
part. In this way democracy, contradicting its
own principles, effectively moves towards a
form of totalitarianism. The State is no longer
the "common home" where all can live
together on the basis of principles of fundamental
equality, but is transformed into a tyrant State,
which arrogates to itself the right to dispose
of the life of the weakest and most defenceless
members, from the unborn child to the elderly,
in the name of a public interest which is really
nothing but the interest of one part. The appearance
of the strictest respect for legality is maintained,
at least when the laws permitting abortion and
euthanasia are the result of a ballot in accordance
with what are generally seen as the rules of
democracy. Really, what we have here is only
the tragic caricature of legality; the democratic
ideal, which is only truly such when it acknowledges
and safeguards the dignity of every human person,
is betrayed in its very foundations: "How
is it still possible to speak of the dignity
of every human person when the killing of the
weakest and most innocent is permitted? In the
name of what justice is the most unjust of discriminations
practised: some individuals are held to be deserving
of defence and others are denied that dignity?"[16]
When this happens, the process leading to the
breakdown of a genuinely human co-existence
and the disintegration of the State itself has
already begun.
To claim the right to abortion, infanticide
and euthanasia, and to recognize that right
in law, means to attribute to human freedom
a perverse and evil significance: that of an
absolute power over others and against others.
This is the death of true freedom: "Truly,
truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin
is a slave to sin" (Jn 8:34).
"And from your face I shall be hidden"
(Gen 4:14): the eclipse of the sense of God
and of man
21. In seeking the deepest
roots of the struggle between the "culture
of life" and the "culture of death",
we cannot restrict ourselves to the perverse
idea of freedom mentioned above. We have to
go to the heart of the tragedy being experienced
by modern man: the eclipse of the sense of God
and of man, typical of a social and cultural
climate dominated by secularism, which, with
its ubiquitous tentacles, succeeds at times
in putting Christian communities themselves
to the test. Those who allow themselves to be
influenced by this climate easily fall into
a sad vicious circle: when the sense of God
is lost, there is also a tendency to lose the
sense of man, of his dignity and his life; in
turn, the systematic violation of the moral
law, especially in the serious matter of respect
for human life and its dignity, produces a kind
of progressive darkening of the capacity to
discern God's living and saving presence.
Once again we can gain insight from the story
of Abel's murder by his brother. After the curse
imposed on him by God, Cain thus addresses the
Lord: "My punishment is greater than I
can bear. Behold, you have driven me this day
away from the ground; and from your face I shall
be hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and wanderer
on the earth, and whoever finds me will slay
me" (Gen 4:13-14). Cain is convinced that
his sin will not obtain pardon from the Lord
and that his inescapable destiny will be to
have to "hide his face" from him.
If Cain is capable of confessing that his fault
is "greater than he can bear", it
is because he is conscious of being in the presence
of God and before God's just judgment. It is
really only before the Lord that man can admit
his sin and recognize its full seriousness.
Such was the experience of David who, after
"having committed evil in the sight of
the Lord", and being rebuked by the Prophet
Nathan, exclaimed: "My offences truly I
know them; my sin is always before me. Against
you, you alone, have I sinned; what is evil
in your sight I have done" (Ps 51:5-6).
22. Consequently, when the
sense of God is lost, the sense of man is also
threatened and poisoned, as the Second Vatican
Council concisely states: "Without the
Creator the creature would disappear . . . But
when God is forgotten the creature itself grows
unintelligible".[17] Man is no longer able
to see himself as "mysteriously different"
from other earthly creatures; he regards himself
merely as one more living being, as an organism
which, at most, has reached a very high stage
of perfection. Enclosed in the narrow horizon
of his physical nature, he is somehow reduced
to being "a thing", and no longer
grasps the "transcendent" character
of his "existence as man". He no longer
considers life as a splendid gift of God, something
"sacred" entrusted to his responsibility
and thus also to his loving care and "veneration".
Life itself becomes a mere "thing",
which man claims as his exclusive property,
completely subject to his control and manipulation.
Thus, in relation to life at birth or at death,
man is no longer capable of posing the question
of the truest meaning of his own existence,
nor can he assimilate with genuine freedom these
crucial moments of his own history. He is concerned
only with "doing", and, using all
kinds of technology, he busies himself with
programming, controlling and dominating birth
and death. Birth and death, instead of being
primary experiences demanding to be "lived",
become things to be merely "possessed"
or "rejected".
Moreover, once all reference to God has been
removed, it is not surprising that the meaning
of everything else becomes profoundly distorted.
Nature itself, from being "mater"
(mother), is now reduced to being "matter",
and is subjected to every kind of manipulation.
This is the direction in which a certain technical
and scientific way of thinking, prevalent in
present-day culture, appears to be leading when
it rejects the very idea that there is a truth
of creation which must be acknowledged, or a
plan of God for life which must be respected.
Something similar happens when concern about
the consequences of such a "freedom without
law" leads some people to the opposite
position of a "law without freedom",
as for example in ideologies which consider
it unlawful to interfere in any way with nature,
practically "divinizing" it. Again,
this is a misunderstanding of nature's dependence
on the plan of the Creator. Thus it is clear
that the loss of contact with God's wise design
is the deepest root of modern man's confusion,
both when this loss leads to a freedom without
rules and when it leaves man in "fear"
of his freedom.
By living "as if God did not exist",
man not only loses sight of the mystery of God,
but also of the mystery of the world and the
mystery of his own being.
23. The eclipse of the sense
of God and of man inevitably leads to a practical
materialism, which breeds individualism, utilitarianism
and hedonism. Here too we see the permanent
validity of the words of the Apostle: "And
since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
God gave them up to a base mind and to improper
conduct" (Rom 1:28). The values of being
are replaced by those of having. The only goal
which counts is the pursuit of one's own material
well-being. The so-called "quality of life"
is interpreted primarily or exclusively as economic
efficiency, inordinate consumerism, physical
beauty and pleasure, to the neglect of the more
profound dimensions--interpersonal, spiritual
and religious--of existence.
In such a context suffering, an inescapable
burden of human existence but also a factor
of possible personal growth, is "censored",
rejected as useless, indeed opposed as an evil,
always and in every way to be avoided. When
it cannot be avoided and the prospect of even
some future well-being vanishes, then life appears
to have lost all meaning and the temptation
grows in man to claim the right to suppress
it.
Within this same cultural climate, the body
is no longer perceived as a properly personal
reality, a sign and place of relations with
others, with God and with the world. It is reduced
to pure materiality: it is simply a complex
of organs, functions and energies to be used
according to the sole criteria of pleasure and
efficiency. Consequently, sexuality too is depersonalized
and exploited: from being the sign, place and
language of love, that is, of the gift of self
and acceptance of another, in all the other's
richness as a person, it increasingly becomes
the occasion and instrument for self-assertion
and the selfish satisfaction of personal desires
and instincts. Thus the original import of human
sexuality is distorted and falsified, and the
two meanings, unitive and procreative, inherent
in the very nature of the conjugal act, are
artificially separated: in this way the marriage
union is betrayed and its fruitfulness is subjected
to the caprice of the couple. Procreation then
becomes the "enemy" to be avoided
in sexual activity: if it is welcomed, this
is only because it expresses a desire, or indeed
the intention, to have a child "at all
costs", and not because it signifies the
complete acceptance of the other and therefore
an openness to the richness of life which the
child represents.
In the materialistic perspective described
so far, interpersonal relations are seriously
impoverished. The first to be harmed are women,
children, the sick or suffering, and the elderly.
The criterion of personal dignity--which demands
respect, generosity and service--is replaced
by the criterion of efficiency, functionality
and usefulness: others are considered not for
what they "are", but for what they
"have, do and produce". This is the
supremacy of the strong over the weak.
24. It is at the heart of
the moral conscience that the eclipse of the
sense of God and of man, with all its various
and deadly consequences for life, is taking
place. It is a question, above all, of the individual
conscience, as it stands before God in its singleness
and uniqueness.[18] But it is also a question,
in a certain sense, of the "moral conscience"
of society: in a way it too is responsible,
not only because it tolerates or fosters behaviour
contrary to life, but also because it encourages
the "culture of death", creating and
consolidating actual "structures of sin"
which go against life. The moral conscience,
both individual and social, is today subjected,
also as a result of the penetrating influence
of the media, to an extremely serious and mortal
danger: that of confusion between good and evil,
precisely in relation to the fundamental right
to life. A large part of contemporary society
looks sadly like that humanity which Paul describes
in his Letter to the Romans. It is composed
"of men who by their wickedness suppress
the truth" (1:18): having denied God and
believing that they can build the earthly city
without him, "they became futile in their
thinking" so that "their senseless
minds were darkened" (1:21); "claiming
to be wise, they became fools" (1:22),
carrying out works deserving of death, and "they
not only do them but approve those who practise
them" (1:32). When conscience, this bright
lamp of the soul (cf. Mt 6:22-23), calls "evil
good and good evil" (Is 5:20), it is already
on the path to the most alarming corruption
and the darkest moral blindness.
And yet all the conditioning and efforts to
enforce silence fail to stifle the voice of
the Lord echoing in the conscience of every
individual: it is always from this intimate
sanctuary of the conscience that a new journey
of love, openness and service to human life
can begin.
"You have come to the sprinkled blood"
(cf. Heb 12: 22, 24): signs of hope and invitation
to commitment
25. "The voice of your
brother's blood is crying to me from the ground"
(Gen 4:10). It is not only the voice of the
blood of Abel, the first innocent man to be
murdered, which cries to God, the source and
defender of life. The blood of every other human
being who has been killed since Abel is also
a voice raised to the Lord. In an absolutely
singular way, as the author of the Letter to
the Hebrews reminds us, the voice of the blood
of Christ, of whom Abel in his innocence is
a prophetic figure, cries out to God: "You
have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the
living God ... to the mediator of a new covenant,
and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more
graciously than the blood of Abel" (12:22,
24).
It is the sprinkled blood. A symbol and prophetic
sign of it had been the blood of the sacrifices
of the Old Covenant, whereby God expressed his
will to communicate his own life to men, purifying
and consecrating them (cf. Ex 24:8; Lev 17:11).
Now all of this is fulfilled and comes true
in Christ: his is the sprinkled blood which
redeems, purifies and saves; it is the blood
of the Mediator of the New Covenant "poured
out for many for the forgiveness of sins"
(Mt 26:28). This blood, which flows from the
pierced side of Christ on the Cross (cf. Jn
19:34), "speaks more graciously" than
the blood of Abel; indeed, it expresses and
requires a more radical "justice",
and above all it implores mercy,[19] it makes
intercession for the brethren before the Father
(cf. Heb 7:25), and it is the source of perfect
redemption and the gift of new life.
The blood of Christ, while it reveals the grandeur
of the Father's love, shows how precious man
is in God's eyes and bow priceless the value
of his life. The Apostle Peter reminds us of
this: "You know that you were ransomed
from the futile ways inherited from your fathers,
not with perishable things such as silver or
gold, but with the precious blood of Christ,
like that of a lamb without blemish or spot"
(1 Pt 1:18-19). Precisely by contemplating the
precious blood of Christ, the sign of his self-giving
love (cf. Jn 13:1), the believer learns to recognize
and appreciate the almost divine dignity of
every human being and can exclaim with ever
renewed and grateful wonder: "How precious
must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he
'gained so great a Redeemer' (Exsultet of the
Easter Vigil), and if God 'gave his only Son'
in order that man 'should not perish but have
eternal life' (cf. Jn 3:16)!".[20]
Furthermore, Christ's blood reveals to man
that his greatness, and therefore his vocation,
consists in the sincere gift of self. Precisely
because it is poured out as the gift of life,
the blood of Christ is no longer a sign of death,
of definitive separation from the brethren,
but the instrument of a communion which is richness
of life for all. Whoever in the Sacrament of
the Eucharist drinks this blood and abides in
Jesus (cf. Jn 6:56) is drawn into the dynamism
of his love and gift of life, in order To bring
to its fullness the original vocation to love
which belongs to everyone (cf. Gen 1:27; 2:18-24).
It is from the blood of Christ that all draw
the strength to commit themselves to promoting
life. It is precisely this blood that is the
most powerful source of hope, indeed it is the
foundation of the absolute certitude that in
God's plan life will be victorious. "And
death shall be no more", exclaims the powerful
voice which comes from the throne of God in
the Heavenly Jerusalem (Rev 21:4). And Saint
Paul assures us that the present victory over
sin is a sign and anticipation of the definitive
victory over death, when there "shall come
to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is
swallowed up in victory'. 'O death, where is
your victory? O death, where is your sting?"'
(1 Cor 15:54-55).
26. In effect, signs which
point to this victory are not lacking in our
societies and cultures, strongly marked though
they are by the "culture of death".
It would therefore be to give a one-sided picture,
which could lead to sterile discouragement,
if the condemnation of the threats to life were
not accompanied by the presentation of the positive
signs at work in humanity's present situation.
Unfortunately it is often hard to see and recognize
these positive signs, perhaps also because they
do not receive sufficient attention in the communications
media. Yet, how many initiatives of help and
support for people who are weak and defenceless
have sprung up and continue to spring up in
the Christian community and in civil society,
at the local, national and international level,
through the efforts of individuals, groups,
movements and organizations of various kinds!
There are still many married couples who, with
a generous sense of responsibility, are ready
to accept children as "the supreme gift
of marriage".[21] Nor is there a lack of
families which, over and above their everyday
service to life, are willing to accept abandoned
children, boys and girls and teenagers in difficulty,
handicapped persons, elderly men and women who
have been left alone. Many centres in support
of life, or similar institutions, are sponsored
by individuals and groups which, with admirable
dedication and sacrifice, offer moral and material
support to mothers who are in difficulty and
are tempted to have recourse to abortion. Increasingly,
there are appearing in many places groups of
volunteers prepared to offer hospitality to
persons without a family, who find themselves
in conditions of particular distress or who
need a supportive environment to help them to
overcome destructive habits and discover anew
the meaning of life.
Medical science, thanks to the committed efforts
of researchers and practitioners, continues
in its efforts to discover ever more effective
remedies: treatments which were once inconceivable
but which now offer much promise for the future
are today being developed for the unborn, the
suffering and those in an acute or terminal
stage of sickness. Various agencies and organizations
are mobilizing their efforts to bring the benefits
of the most advanced medicine to countries most
afflicted by poverty and endemic diseases. In
a similar way national and international associations
of physicians are being organized to bring quick
relief to peoples affected by natural disasters,
epidemics or wars. Even if a just international
distribution of medical resources is still far
from being a reality, how can we not recognize
in the steps taken so far the sign of a growing
solidarity among peoples, a praiseworthy human
and moral sensitivity and a greater respect
for life?
27. In view of laws which
permit abortion and in view of efforts, which
here and there have been successful, to legalize
euthanasia, movements and initiatives to raise
social awareness in defence of life have sprung
up in many parts of the world. When, in accordance
with their principles, such movements act resolutely,
but without resorting to violence, they promote
a wider and more profound consciousness of the
value of life, and evoke and bring about a more
determined commitment to its defence.
Furthermore, how can we fail to mention all
those daily gestures of openness, sacrifice
and unselfish care which countless people lovingly
make in families, hospitals, orphanages, homes
for the elderly and other centres or communities
which defend life? Allowing herself to be guided
by the example of Jesus the "Good Samaritan"
(cf. Lk 10:29-37) and upheld by his strength,
the Church bas always been in the front line
in providing charitable help: so many of her
sons and daughters, especially men and women
Religious, in traditional and ever new forms,
have consecrated and continue to consecrate
their lives to God, freely giving of themselves
out of love for their neighbour, especially
for the weak and needy. These deeds strengthen
the bases of the "civilization of love
and life", without which the life of individuals
and of society itself loses its most genuinely
human quality. Even if they go unnoticed and
remain hidden to most people, faith assures
us that the Father "who sees in secret"
(Mt 6:6) not only will reward these actions
but already here and now makes them produce
lasting fruit for the good of all.
Among the signs of hope we should also count
the spread, at many levels of public opinion,
of a new sensitivity ever more opposed to war
as an instrument for the resolution of conflicts
between peoples, and increasingly oriented to
finding effective but "non-violent"
means to counter the armed aggressor. In the
same perspective there is evidence of a growing
public opposition to the death penalty, even
when such a penalty is seen as a kind of "legitimate
defence" on the part of society. Modern
society in fact has the means of effectively
suppressing crime by rendering criminals harmless
without definitively denying them the chance
to reform.
Another welcome sign is the growing attention
being paid to the quality of life and to ecology,
especially in more developed societies, where
people's expectations are no longer concentrated
so much on problems of survival as on the search
for an overall improvement of living conditions.
Especially significant is the reawakening of
an ethical reflection on issues affecting life.
The emergence and ever more widespread development
of bioethics is promoting more reflection and
dialogue--between believers and non-believers,
as well as between followers of different religions--on
ethical problems, including fundamental issues
pertaining to human life.
28. This situation, with its
lights and shadows, ought to make us all fully
aware that we are facing an enormous and dramatic
clash between good and evil, death and life,
the "culture of death" and the "culture
of life". We find ourselves not only "faced
with" but necessarily "in the midst
of" this conflict: we are all involved
and we all share in it, with the inescapable
responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally
pro-life.
For us too Moses' invitation rings out loud
and clear: "See, I have set before you
this day life and good, death and evil.... I
have set before you life and death, blessing
and curse; therefore choose life, that you and
your descendants may live" (Dt 30:15,19).
This invitation is very appropriate for us who
are called day by day to the duty of choosing
between the "culture of life" and
the "culture of death". But the call
of Deuteronomy goes even deeper, for it urges
us to make a choice which is properly religious
and moral. It is a question of giving our own
existence a basic orientation and living the
law of the Lord faithfully and consistently:
"If you obey the commandments of the Lord
your God which I command you this day, by loving
the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and
by keeping his commandments and his statutes
and his ordinances, then you shall live ...
therefore choose life, that you and your descendants
may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying
his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means
life to you and length of days" (30:16,19-20).
The unconditional choice for life reaches its
full religious and moral meaning when it flows
from, is formed by and nourished by faith in
Christ. Nothing helps us so much to face positively
the conflict between death and life in which
we are engaged as faith in the Son of God who
became man and dwelt among men so "that
they may have life, and have it abundantly"
(Jn 10:10). It is a matter of faith in the Risen
Lord, who has conquered death; faith in the
blood of Christ "that speaks more graciously
than the blood of Abel" (Heb 12:24).
With the light and strength of this faith,
therefore, in facing the challenges of the present
situation, the Church is becoming more aware
of the grace and responsibility which come to
her from her Lord of proclaiming, celebrating
and serving the Gospel of life.
CHAPTER II
I CAME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE
THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE CONCERNING LIFE
"The life was made manifest, and we saw
it" (1 Jn 1:2): with our gaze fixed on
Christ) "the Word of life"
29. Faced with the countless
grave threats to life present in the modern
world, one could feel overwhelmed by sheer powerlessness:
good can never be powerful enough to triumph
over evil!
At such times the People of God, and this includes
every believer, is called to profess with humility
and courage its faith in Jesus Christ, "the
Word of life" (1 Jn 1:1). The Gospel of
life is not simply a reflection, however new
and profound, on human life. Nor is it merely
a commandment aimed at raising awareness and
bringing about significant changes in society.
Still less is it an illusory promise of a better
future. The Gospel of life is something concrete
and personal, for it consists in the proclamation
of the very person of Jesus. Jesus made himself
known to the Apostle Thomas, and in him to every
person, with the words: "I am the way,
and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6).
This is also how he spoke of himself to Martha,
the sister of Lazarus: "I am the resurrection
and the life; he who believes in me, though
he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives
and believes in me shall never die" (Jn
11:25-26). Jesus is the Son who from all eternity
receives life from the Father (cf. Jn 5:26),
and who has come among men to make them sharers
in this gift: "I came that they may have
life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10).
Through the words, the actions and the very
person of Jesus, man is given the possibility
of "knowing" the complete truth concerning
the value of human life. From this "source"
he receives, in particular, the capacity to
"accomplish" this truth perfectly
(cf. Jn 3:21), that is, to accept and fulfil
completely the responsibility of loving and
serving, of defending and promoting human life.
In Christ, the Gospel of life is definitively
proclaimed and fully given. This is the Gospel
which, already present in the Revelation of
the Old Testament, and indeed written in the
heart of every man and woman, has echoed in
every conscience "from the beginning",
from the time of creation itself, in such a
way that, despite the negative consequences
of sin, it can also be known in its essential
traits by human reason. As the Second Vatican
Council teaches, Christ "perfected revelation
by fulfilling it through his whole work of making
himself present and manifesting himself; through
his words and deeds, his signs and wonders,
but especially through his death and glorious
Resurrection from the dead and final sending
of the Spirit of truth. Moreover, he confirmed
with divine testimony what revelation proclaimed:
that God is with us to free us from the darkness
of sin and death, and to raise us up to life
eternal".[22]
30. Hence, with our attention
fixed on the Lord Jesus, we wish to hear from
him once again "the words of God"
(Jn 3:34) and meditate anew on the Gospel of
life. The deepest and most original meaning
of this meditation on what revelation tells
us about human life was taken up by the Apostle
John in the opening words of his First Letter:
"That which was from the beginning, which
we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon and touched with our
hands, concerning the word of life--the life
was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify
to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life
which was with the Father and was made manifest
to us--that which we have seen and heard we
proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship
with us" (1:1-3).
In Jesus, the "Word of life", God's
eternal life is thus proclaimed and given. Thanks
to this proclamation and gift, our physical
and spiritual life, also in its earthly phase,
acquires its full value and meaning, for God's
eternal life is in fact the end to which our
living in this world is directed and called.
In this way the Gospel of life includes everything
that human experience and reason tell us about
the value of human life, accepting it, purifying
it, exalting it and bringing it to fulfilment.
"The Lord is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation" (Ex 15:2):
life is always a good
31. The fullness of the Gospel
message about life was prepared for in the Old
Testament. Especially in the events of the Exodus,
the centre of the Old Testament faith experience,
Israel discovered the preciousness of its life
in the eyes of God. When it seemed doomed to
extermination because of the threat of death
hanging over all its newborn males (cf. Ex 1:15-22),
the Lord revealed himself to Israel as its Saviour,
with the power to ensure a future to those without
hope. Israel thus comes to know clearly that
its existence is not at the mercy of a Pharaoh
who can exploit it at his despotic whim. On
the contrary, Israel's life is the object of
God's gentle and intense love.
Freedom from slavery meant the gift of an identity,
the recognition of an indestructible dignity
and the beginning of a new history, in which
the discovery of God and discovery of self go
hand in hand. The Exodus was a foundational
experience and a model for the future. Through
it, Israel comes to learn that whenever its
existence is threatened it need only turn to
God with renewed trust in order to find in him
effective help: "I formed you, you are
my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten
by me" (Is 44:21).
Thus, in coming to know the value of its own
existence as a people, Israel also grows in
its perception of the meaning and value of life
itself. This reflection is developed more specifically
in the Wisdom Literature, on the basis of daily
experience of the precariousness of life and
awareness of the threats which assail it. Faced
with the contradictions of life, faith is challenged
to respond.
More than anything else, it is the problem
of suffering which challenges faith and puts
it to the test. How can we fail to appreciate
the universal anguish of man when we meditate
on the Book of Job? The innocent man overwhelmed
by suffering is understandably led to wonder:
"Why is light given to him that is in misery,
and life to the bitter in soul, who long for
death, but it comes not, and dig for it more
than for hid treasures?" (3:20-21). But
even when the darkness is deepest, faith points
to a trusting and adoring acknowledgment of
the "mystery": "I know that you
can do all things, and that no purpose of yours
can be thwarted" (Job 42:2).
Revelation progressively allows the first notion
of immortal life planted by the Creator in the
human heart to be grasped with ever greater
clarity: "He has made everything beautiful
in its time; also he has put eternity into man's
mind" (Ec 3:11). This first notion of totality
and fullness is waiting to be manifested in
love and brought to perfection, by God's free
gift, through sharing in his eternal life.
"The name of Jesus... has made this man
strong" (Acts 3:16): in the uncertainties
of human life, Jesus brings life's meaning to
fulfilment
32. The experience of the
people of the Covenant is renewed in the experience
of all the "poor" who meet Jesus of
Nazareth. Just as God who "loves the living"
(cf. Wis 11:26) had reassured Israel in the
midst of danger, so now the Son of God proclaims
to all who feel threatened and hindered that
their lives too are a good to which the Father's
love gives meaning and value.
"The blind receive their sight, the lame
walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear,
the dead are raised up, the poor have good news
preached to them" (Lk 7:22). With these
words of the Prophet Isaiah (35:5-6, 61:1),
Jesus sets forth the meaning of his own mission:
all who suffer because their lives are in some
way "diminished" thus hear from him
the "good news" of God's concern for
them, and they know for certain that their lives
too are a gift carefully guarded in the hands
of the Father (cf. Mt 6:25-34).
It is above all the "poor" to whom
Jesus speaks in his preaching and actions. The
crowds of the sick and the outcasts who follow
him and seek him out (cf. Mt 4:23-25) find in
his words and actions a revelation of the great
value of their lives and of how their hope of
salvation is well-founded.
The same thing has taken place in the Church's
mission from the beginning. When the Church
proclaims Christ as the one who "went about
doing good and healing all that were oppressed
by the devil, for God was with him" (Acts
10:38), she is conscious of being the bearer
of a message of salvation which resounds in
all its newness precisely amid the hardships
and poverty of human life. Peter cured the cripple
who daily sought alms at the "Beautiful
Gate" of the Temple in Jerusalem, saying:
"I have no silver and gold, but I give
you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, walk" (Acts 3:6). By faith
in Jesus, "the Author of life" (Acts
3:15), life which lies abandoned and cries out
for help regains self-esteem and full dignity.
The words and deeds of Jesus and those of his
Church are not meant only for those who are
sick or suffering or in some way neglected by
society. On a deeper level they affect the very
meaning of every person's life in its moral
and spiritual dimensions. Only those who recognize
that their life is marked by the evil of sin
can discover in an encounter with Jesus the
Saviour the truth and the authenticity of their
own existence. Jesus himself says as much: "Those
who are well have no need of a physician, but
those who are sick; I have not come to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance"
(Lk 5:31-32).
But the person who, like the rich land-owner
in the Gospel parable, thinks that he can make
his life secure by the possession of material
goods alone, is deluding himself. Life is slipping
away from him, and very soon he will find himself
bereft of it without ever having appreciated
its real meaning: "Fool! This night your
soul is required of you; and the things you
have prepared, whose will they be?" (Lk
12:20).
33. In Jesus' own life, from
beginning to end, we find a singular "dialectic"
between the experience of the uncertainty of
human life and the affirmation of its value.
Jesus' life is marked by uncertainty from the
very moment of his birth. He is certainly accepted
by the righteous, who echo Mary's immediate
and joyful "yes" (cf. Lk 1:38). But
there is also, from the start, rejection on
the part of a world which grows hostile and
looks for the child in order "to destroy
him" (Mt 2:13); a world which remains indifferent
and unconcerned about the fulfilment of the
mystery of this life entering the world: "there
was no place for them in the inn" (Lk 2:7).
In this contrast between threats and insecurity
on the one hand and the power of God's gift
on the other, there shines forth all the more
dearly the glory which radiates from the house
at Nazareth and from the manger at Bethlehem:
this life which is born is salvation for all
humanity (cf. Lk 2:11).
Life's contradictions and risks were fully
accepted by Jesus: "though he was rich,
yet for your sake he became poor, so that by
his poverty you might become rich" (2 Cor
8:9). The poverty of which Paul speaks is not
only a stripping of divine privileges, but also
a sharing in the lowliest and most vulnerable
conditions of human life (cf. Phil 2:6-7). Jesus
lived this poverty throughout his life, until
the culminating moment of the Cross: "he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly
exalted him and bestowed on him the name which
is above every name" (Phil 2:8-9). It is
precisely by his death that Jesus reveals all
the splendour and value of life, inasmuch as
his self-oblation on the Cross becomes the source
of new life for all people (cf. Jn 12:32). In
his journeying amid contradictions and in the
very loss of his life, Jesus is guided by the
certainty that his life is in the hands of the
Father. Consequently, on the Cross, he can say
to him: "Father, into your hands I commend
my spirit!" (Lk 23:46), that is, my life.
Truly great must be the value of human life
if the Son of God has taken it up and made it
the instrument of the salvation of all humanity!
"Called... to be conformed to the image
of his Son" (Rom 8:28-29): God's glory
shines on the face of man
34. Life is always a good.
This is an instinctive perception and a fact
of experience, and man is called to grasp the
profound reason why this is so.
Why is life a good? This question is found
everywhere in the Bible, and from the very first
pages it receives a powerful and amazing answer.
The life which God gives man is quite different
from the life of all other living creatures,
inasmuch as man, although formed from the dust
of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7, 3:19; Job 34:15;
Ps 103:14; 104:29), is a manifestation of God
in the world, a sign of his presence, a trace
of his glory (cf. Gen 1:26-27; Ps 8:6). This
is what Saint Irenaeus of Lyons wanted to emphasize
in his celebrated definition: "Man, living
man, is the glory of God".[23] Man has
been given a sublime dignity, based on the intimate
bond which unites him to his Creator: in man
there shines forth a reflection of God himself.
The Book of Genesis affirms this when, in the
first account of creation, it places man at
the summit of God's creative activity, as its
crown, at the culmination of a process which
leads from indistinct chaos to the most perfect
of creatures. Everything in creation is ordered
to man and everything is made subject to him:
"Fill the earth and subdue it; and have
dominion over . . . every living thing"
(1:28); this is God's command to the man and
the woman. A similar message is found also in
the other account of creation: "The Lord
God took the man and put him in the garden of
Eden to till it and keep it" (Gen 2:15).
We see here a clear affirmation of the primacy
of man over things; these are made subject to
him and entrusted to his responsible care, whereas
for no reason can he be made subject to other
men and almost reduced to the level of a thing.
In the biblical narrative, the difference between
man and other creatures is shown above all by
the fact that only the creation of man is presented
as the result of a special decision on the part
of God, a deliberation to establish a particular
and specific bond with the Creator: "Let
us make man in our image, after our likeness"
(Gen 1:26). The life which God offers to man
is a gift by which God shares something of himself
with his creature.
Israel would ponder at length the meaning of
this particular bond between man and God. The
Book of Sirach too recognizes that God, in creating
human beings, "endowed them with strength
like his own, and made them in his own image"
(17:3). The biblical author sees as part of
this image not only man's dominion over the
world but also those spiritual faculties which
are distinctively human, such as reason, discernment
between good and evil, and free will: "He
filled them with knowledge and understanding,
and showed them good and evil" (Sir 17:7).
The ability to attain truth and freedom are
human prerogatives inasmuch as man is created
in the image of his Creator, God who is true
and just (cf. Dt 32:4). Man alone, among all
visible creatures, is "capable of knowing
and loving his Creator".[24] The life which
God bestows upon man is much more than mere
existence in time. It is a drive towards fullness
of life; it is the seed of an existence which
transcends the very limits of time: "For
God created man for incorruption, and made him
in the image of his own eternity" (Wis
2:23).
35. The Yahwist account of
creation expresses the same conviction. This
ancient narrative speaks of a divine breath
which is breathed into man so that he may come
to life: "The Lord God formed man of dust
from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life; and man became a living
being" (Gen 2:7).
The divine origin of this spirit of life explains
the perennial dissatisfaction which man feels
throughout his days on earth. Because he is
made by God and bears within himself an indelible
imprint of God, man is naturally drawn to God.
When he heeds the deepest yearnings of the heart,
every man must make his own the words of truth
expressed by Saint Augustine: "You have
made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts
are restless until they rest in you".[25]
How very significant is the dissatisfaction
which marks man's life in Eden as long as his
sole point of reference is the world of plants
and animals (cf. Gen 2:20). Only the appearance
of the woman, a being who is flesh of his flesh
and bone of his bones (cf. Gen 2:23), and in
whom the spirit of God the Creator is also alive,
can satisfy the need for interpersonal dialogue,
so vital for human existence. In the other,
whether man or woman, there is a reflection
of God himself, the definitive goal and fulfilment
of every person.
"What is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?",
the Psalmist wonders (Ps 8:4). Compared to the
immensity of the universe, man is very small,
and yet this very contrast reveals his greatness:
"You have made him little less than a god,
and crown him with glory and honour" (Ps
8:5). The glory of God shines on the face of
man. In man the Creator finds his rest, as Saint
Ambrose comments with a sense of awe: "The
sixth day is finished and the creation of the
world ends with the formation of that masterpiece
which is man, who exercises dominion over all
living creatures and is as it were the crown
of the universe and the supreme beauty of every
created being. Truly we should maintain a reverential
silence, since the Lord rested from every work
he had undertaken in the world. He rested then
in the depths of man, he rested in man's mind
and in his thought; after all, he had created
man endowed with reason, capable of imitating
him, of emulating his virtue, of hungering for
heavenly graces. In these his gifts God reposes,
who has said: 'Upon whom shall I rest, if not
upon the one who is humble, contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word?' (Is 66:1-2). I thank
the Lord our God who has created so wonderful
a work in which to take his rest"[26]
36. Unfortunately, God's marvellous
plan was marred by the appearance of sin in
history. Through sin, man rebels against his
Creator and ends up by worshipping creatures:
"They exchanged the truth about God for
a lie and worshipped and served the creature
rather than the Creator" (Rom 1:25). As
a result man not only deforms the image of God
in his own person, but is tempted to offences
against it in others as well, replacing relationships
of communion by attitudes of distrust, indifference,
hostility and even murderous hatred. When God
is not acknowledged as God, the profound meaning
of man is betrayed and communion between people
is compromised.
In the life of man, God's image shines forth
anew and is again revealed in all its fullness
at the coming of the Son of God in human flesh.
"Christ is the image of the invisible God"
(Col 1:15), he "reflects the glory of God
and bears the very stamp of his nature"
(Heb 1:3). He is the perfect image of the Father.
The plan of life given to the first Adam finds
at last its fulfilment in Christ. Whereas the
disobedience of Adam had ruined and marred God's
plan for human life and introduced death into
the world, the redemptive obedience of Christ
is the source of grace poured out upon the human
race, opening wide to everyone the gates of
the kingdom of life (cf. Rom 5:12-21). As the
Apostle Paul states: "The first man Adam
became a living being; the last Adam became
a life-giving spirit" (1 Cor 15:45).
All who commit themselves to following Christ
are given the fullness of life: the divine image
is restored, renewed and brought to perfection
in them. God's plan for human beings is this,
that they should "be conformed to the image
of his Son" (Rom 8:29). Only thus, in the
splendour of this image, can man be freed from
the slavery of idolatry, rebuild lost fellowship
and rediscover his true identity.
"Whoever lives and believes in me shall
never die" (Jn 11:26): the gift of eternal
life
37. The life which the Son
of God came to give to human beings cannot be
reduced to mere existence in time. The life
which was always "in him" and which
is the "light of men" (Jn 1:4) consists
in being begotten of God and sharing in the
fullness of his love: "To all who received
him, who believed in his name, he gave power
to become children of God; who were born, not
of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of
the will of man, but of God" (Jn 1:12-13).
Sometimes Jesus refers to this life which he
came to give simply as "life", and
he presents being born of God as a necessary
condition if man is to attain the end for which
God has created him: "Unless one is born
anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God"
(Jn 3:3). To give this life is the real object
of Jesus' mission: he is the one who "comes
down from heaven, and gives life to the world"
(Jn 6:33). Thus can he truly say: "He who
follows me ... will have the light of life"
(Jn 8:12).
At other times, Jesus speaks of "eternal
life". Here the adjective does more than
merely evoke a perspective which is beyond time.
The life which Jesus promises and gives is "eternal"
because it is a full participation in the life
of the "Eternal One". Whoever believes
in Jesus and enters into communion with him
has eternal life (cf. Jn 3:15; 6:40) because
he hears from Jesus the only words which reveal
and communicate to his existence the fullness
of life. These are the "words of eternal
life" which Peter acknowledges in his confession
of faith: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You
have the words of eternal life; and we have
believed, and have come to know, that you are
the Holy One of God" (Jn 6:68-69). Jesus
himself, addressing the Father in the great
priestly prayer, declares what eternal life
consists in: "This is eternal life, that
they may know you the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom you have sent" (Jn 17:3). To
know God and his Son is to accept the mystery
of the loving communion of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit into one's own life, which
even now is open to eternal life because it
shares in the life of God.
38. Eternal life is therefore
the life of God himself and at the same time
the life of the children of God. As they ponder
this unexpected and inexpressible truth which
comes to us from God in Christ, believers cannot
fail to be filled with ever new wonder and unbounded
gratitude. They can say in the words of the
Apostle John: "See what love the Father
has given us, that we should be called children
of God; and so we are.... Beloved, we are God's
children now; it does not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when he appears we
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he
is" (1 Jn 3:1-2).
Here the Christian truth about life becomes
most sublime. The dignity of this life is linked
not only to its beginning, to the fact that
it comes from God, but also to its final end,
to its destiny of fellowship with God in knowledge
and love of him.
In the light of this truth Saint Irenaeus qualifies
and completes his praise of man: "the glory
of God" is indeed, "man, living man",
but "the life of man consists in the vision
of God".[27]
Immediate consequences arise from this for
human life in its earthly state, in which, for
that matter, eternal life already springs forth
and begins to grow. Although man instinctively
loves life because it is a good, this love will
find further inspiration and strength, and new
breadth and depth, in the divine dimensions
of this good Similarly, the love which every
human being has for life cannot be reduced simply
to a desire to have sufficient space for self-expression
and for entering into relationships with others;
rather, it develops in a joyous awareness that
life can become the "place" where
God manifests himself, where we meet him and
enter into communion with him. The life which
Jesus gives in no way lessens the value of our
existence in time; it takes it and directs it
to its final destiny: "I am the resurrection
and the life ... whoever lives and believes
in me shall never die" (Jn 11:25-26).
"From man in regard to his fellow man
I will demand an accounting" (Gen 9:5):
reverence and love for every human life
39. Man's life comes from
God; it is his gift, his image and imprint,
a sharing in his breath of life. God therefore
is the sole Lord of this life: man cannot do
with it as he wills. God himself makes this
clear to Noah after the Flood: "For your
own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting
... and from man in regard to his fellow man
I will demand an accounting for human life"
(Gen 9:5). The biblical text is concerned to
emphasize how the sacredness of life has its
foundation in God and in his creative activity:
"For God made man in his own image"
(Gen 9:6).
Human life and death are thus in the hands
of God, in his power: "In his hand is the
life of every living thing and the breath of
all mankind", exclaims Job (12:10). "The
Lord brings to death and brings to life; he
brings down to Sheol and raises up" (1
Sam 2:6). He alone can say: "It is I who
bring both death and life" (Dt 32:39).
But God does not exercise this power in an
arbitrary and threatening way, but rather as
part of his care and loving concern for his
creatures. If it is true that human life is
in the hands of God, it is no less true that
these are loving hands, like those of a mother
who accepts, nurtures and takes care of her
child: "I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a child quieted at its mother's breast;
like a child that is quieted is my soul"
(Ps 131:2; cf. Is 49:15; 66:12-13; Hos 11:4).
Thus Israel does not see in the history of peoples
and in the destiny of individuals the outcome
of mere chance or of blind fate, but rather
the results of a loving plan by which God brings
together all the possibilities of life and opposes
the powers of death arising from sin: "God
did not make death, and he does not delight
in the death of the living. For he created all
things that they might exist" (Wis 1:13-14).
40. The sacredness of life
gives rise to its inviolability, written from
the beginning in man's heart, in his conscience.
The question: "What have you done?"
(Gen 4:10), which God addresses to Cain after
he has killed his brother Abel, interprets the
experience of every person: in the depths of
his conscience, man is always reminded of the
inviolability of life--his own life and that
of others--as something which does not belong
to him, because it is the property and gift
of God the Creator and Father.
The commandment regarding the inviolability
of human life reverberates at the heart of the
"ten words" in the covenant of Sinai
(cf. Ex 34:28). In the first place that commandment
prohibits murder: "You shall not kill"
(Ex 20:13); "do not slay the innocent and
righteous" (Ex 23:7). But, as is brought
out in Israel's later legislation, it also prohibits
all personal injury inflicted on another (cf.
Ex 21:12-27). Of course we must recognize that
in the Old Testament this sense of the value
of life, though already quite marked, does not
yet reach the refinement found in the Sermon
on the Mount. This is apparent in some aspects
of the current penal legislation, which provided
for severe forms of corporal punishment and
even the death penalty. But the overall message,
which the New Testament will bring to perfection,
is a forceful appeal for respect for the inviolability
of physical life and the integrity of the person.
It culminates in the positive commandment which
obliges us to be responsible for our neighbour
as for ourselves: "You shall love your
neighbour as yourself" (Lev 19:18).
41. The commandment "You
shall not kill", included and more fully
expressed in the positive command of love for
one's neighbour, is reaffirmed in all its force
by the Lord Jesus. To the rich young man who
asks him: "Teacher, what good deed must
I do, to have eternal life?", Jesus replies:
"If you would enter life, keep the commandments"
(Mt 19:16,17). And he quotes, as the first of
these: "You shall not kill" (Mt 19:18).
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus demands from
his disciples a righteousness which surpasses
that of the Scribes and Pharisees, also with
regard to respect for life: "You have heard
that it was said to the men of old, 'You shall
not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable
to judgment'. But I say to you that every one
who is angry with his brother shall be liable
to judgment" (Mt 5:21-22).
By his words and actions Jesus further unveils
the positive requirements of the commandment
regarding the inviolability of life. These requirements
were already present in the Old Testament, where
legislation dealt with protecting and defending
life when it was weak and threatened: in the
case of foreigners, widows, orphans, the sick
and the poor in general, including children
in the womb (cf. Ex 21:22; 22:20-26). With Jesus
these positive requirements assume new force
and urgency, and are revealed in all their breadth
and depth: they range from caring for the life
of one's brother (whether a blood brother, someone
belonging to the same people, or a foreigner
living in the land of Israel) to showing concern
for the stranger, even to the point of loving
one's enemy.
A stranger is no longer a stranger for the
person who must become a neighbour to someone
in need, to the point of accepting responsibility
for his life, as the parable of the Good Samaritan
shows so clearly (cf. Lk 10:25-37). Even an
enemy ceases to be an enemy for the person who
is obliged to love him (cf. Mt 5:38-48; Lk 6:27-35),
to "do good" to him (cf. Lk 6:27,
33, 35) and to respond to his immediate needs
promptly and with no expectation of repayment
(cf. Lk 6:34-35). The height of this love is
to pray for one's enemy. By so doing we achieve
harmony with the providential love of God: "But
I say to you, love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you, so that you may be
children of your Father who is in heaven; for
he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the
good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust"
(Mt 5:44-45; cf. Lk 6:28, 35).
Thus the deepest element of God's commandment
to protect human life is the requirement to
show reverence and love for every person and
the life of every person. This is the teaching
which the Apostle Paul, echoing the words of
Jesus, addresses to the Christians in Rome:
"The commandments, 'You shall not commit
adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not
steal, You shall not covet', and any other commandment,
are summed up in this sentence, 'You shall love
your neighbour as yourself. Love does no wrong
to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling;
of the law" (Rom 13:9-10).
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the
earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28): man's
responsibility for life
42. To defend and promote
life, to show reverence and love for it, is
a task which God entrusts to every man, calling
him as his living image to share in his own
lordship over the world: "God blessed them,
and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply,
and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion
over the fish of the sea and over the birds
of the air and over every living thing that
moves upon the earth"' (Gen 1:28).
The biblical text clearly shows the breadth
and depth of the lordship which God bestows
on man. It is a matter first of all of dominion
over the earth and over every living creature,
as the Book of Wisdom makes clear: "O God
of my fathers and Lord of mercy... by your wisdom
you have formed man, to have dominion over the
creatures you have made, and rule the world
in holiness and righteousness" (Wis 9:1,2-3).
The Psalmist too extols the dominion given to
man as a sign of glory and honour from his Creator:
"You have given him dominion over the works
of your hands; you have put all things under
his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts
of the field, the birds of the air, and the
fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths
of the sea" (Ps 8:6-8).
As one called to till and look after the garden
of the world (cf. Gen 2:15), man has a specific
responsibility towards the environment in which
he lives, towards the creation which God has
put at the service of his personal dignity,
of his life, not only for the present but also
for future generations. It is the ecological
question--ranging from the preservation of the
natural habitats of the different species of
animals and of other forms of life to "human
ecology" properly speaking[28]--which finds
in the Bible clear and strong ethical direction,
leading to a solution which respects the great
good of life, of every life. In fact, "the
dominion granted to man by the Creator is not
an absolute power, nor can one speak of a freedom
to 'use and misuse', or to dispose of things
as one pleases. The limitation imposed from
the beginning by the Creator himself and expressed
symbolically by the prohibition not to 'eat
of the fruit of the tree' (cf. Gen 2:16-17)
shows clearly enough that, when it comes to
the natural world, we are subject not only to
biological laws but also to moral ones, which
cannot be violated with impunity".[29]
43. A certain sharing by man
in God's lordship is also evident in the specific
responsibility which he is given for human life
as such. It is a responsibility which reaches
its highest point in the giving of life through
procreation by man and woman in marriage. As
the Second Vatican Council teaches: "God
himself who said, 'It is not good for man to
be alone' (Gen 2:18) and 'who made man from
the beginning male and female' (Mt 19:4), wished
to share with man a certain special participation
in his own creative work. Thus he blessed male
and female saying: 'Increase and multiply' (Gen
1:28).[30]
By speaking of "a certain special participation"
of man and woman in the "creative work"
of God, the Council wishes to point out that
having a child is an event which is deeply human
and full of religious meaning, insofar as it
involves both the spouses, who form "one
flesh" (Gen 2:24), and God who makes himself
present. As I wrote in my Letter to Families:
"When a new person is born of the conjugal
union of the two, he brings with him into the
world a particular image and likeness of God
himself: the genealogy of the person is inscribed
in the very biology of generation. In affirming
that the spouses, as parents, cooperate with
God the Creator in conceiving and giving birth
to a new human being, we are not speaking merely
with reference to the laws of biology. Instead,
we wish to emphasize that God himself is present
in human fatherhood and motherhood quite differently
than he is present in all other instances of
begetting 'on earth'. Indeed, God alone is the
source of that 'image and likeness' which is
proper to the human being, as it was received
at Creation. Begetting is the continuation of
Creation".[31]
This is what the Bible teaches in direct and
eloquent language when it reports the joyful
cry of the first woman, "the mother of
all the living" (Gen 3:20). Aware that
God has intervened, Eve exclaims: "I have
begotten a man with the help of the Lord"
(Gen 4:1). In procreation therefore, through
the communication of life from parents to child,
God's own image and likeness is transmitted,
thanks to the creation of the immortal soul.[32]
The beginning of the "book of the genealogy
of Adam" expresses it in this way: "When
God created man, he made him in the likeness
of God. Male and female he created them, and
he blessed them and called them man when they
were created. When Adam had lived a hundred
and thirty years, he became the father of a
son in his own likeness, after his image, and
named him Seth" (Gen 5:1-3). It is precisely
in their role as co-workers with God who transmits
his image to the new creature that we see the
greatness of couples who are ready "to
cooperate with the love of the Creator and the
Saviour, who through them will enlarge and enrich
his own family day by day".[33]
This is why the Bishop Amphilochius extolled
"holy matrimony, chosen and elevated above
all other earthly gifts" as "the begetter
of humanity, the creator of images of God".[34]
Thus, a man and woman joined in matrimony become
partners in a divine undertaking: through the
act of procreation, God's gift is accepted and
a new life opens to the future.
But over and above the specific mission of
parents, the task of accepting and serving life
involves everyone; and this task must be fulfilled
above all towards life when it is at its weakest.
It is Christ himself who reminds us of this
when he asks to be loved and served in his brothers
and sisters who are suffering in any way: the
hungry, the thirsty, the foreigner, the naked,
the sick, the imprisoned ... Whatever is done
to each of them is done to Christ himself (cf.
Mt 25:31-46).
"For you formed my inmost being"
(Ps 139:13): the dignity of the unborn child
44. Human life finds itself
most vulnerable when it enters the world and
when it leaves the realm of time to embark upon
eternity. The word of God frequently repeats
the call to show care and respect, above all
where life is undermined by sickness and old
age. Although there are no direct and explicit
calls to protect human life at its very beginning,
specifically life not yet born, and life nearing
its end, this can easily be explained by the
fact that the mere possibility of harming, attacking,
or actually denying life in these circumstances
is completely foreign to the religious and cultural
way of thinking of the People of God.
In the Old Testament, sterility is dreaded
as a curse, while numerous offspring are viewed
as a blessing: "Sons are a heritage from
the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward"
(Ps 127:3; cf. Ps 128:3-4). This belief is also
based on Israel's awareness of being the people
of the Covenant, called to increase in accordance
with the promise made to Abraham: "Look
towards heaven, and number the stars, if you
are able to number them ... so shall your descendants
be" (Gen 15:5). But more than anything
else, at work here is the certainty that the
life which parents transmit has its origins
in God. We see this attested in the many biblical
passages which respectfully and lovingly speak
of conception, of the forming of life in the
mother's womb, of giving birth and of the intimate
connection between the initial moment of life
and the action of God the Creator.
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew
you, and before you were born I consecrated
you" (Jer 1:5): the life of every individual,
from its very beginning, is part of God's plan.
Job, from the depth of his pain, stops to contemplate
the work of God who miraculously formed his
body in his mother's womb. Here he finds reason
for trust, and he expresses his belief that
there is a divine plan for his life: "You
have fashioned and made me; will you then turn
and destroy me? Remember that you have made
me of clay; and will you turn me to dust again?
Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle
me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and
flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
You have granted me life and steadfast love;
and your care has preserved my spirit"
(Job 10:8-12). Expressions of awe and wonder
at God's intervention in the life of a child
in its mother's womb occur again and again in
the Psalms.[35]
How can anyone think that even a single moment
of this marvellous process of the unfolding
of life could be separated from the wise and
loving work of the Creator, and left prey to
human caprice? Certainly the mother of the seven
brothers did not think so; she professes her
faith in God, both the source and guarantee
of life from its very conception, and the foundation
of the hope of new life beyond death: "I
do not know how you came into being in my womb.
It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor
I who set in order the elements within each
of you. Therefore the Creator of the world,
who shaped the beginning of man and devised
the origin of all things, will in his mercy
give life and breath back to you again, since
you now forget yourselves for the sake of his
laws" (2 Mac 7:22-23).
45. The New Testament revelation
confirms the indisputable recognition of the
value of life from its very beginning. The exaltation
of fruitfulness and the eager expectation of
life resound in the words with which Elizabeth
rejoices in her pregnancy: "The Lord has
looked on me... to take away my reproach among
men" (Lk 1:25). And even more so, the value
of the person from the moment of conception
is celebrated in the meeting between the Virgin
Mary and Elizabeth, and between the two children
whom they are carrying in the womb. It is precisely
the children who reveal the advent of the Messianic
age: in their meeting, the redemptive power
of the presence of the Son of God among men
first becomes operative. As Saint Ambrose writes:
"The arrival of Mary and the blessings
of the Lord's presence are also speedily declared...
Elizabeth was the first to hear the voice; but
John was the first to experience grace. She
heard according to the order of nature; he leaped
because of the mystery. She recognized the arrival
of Mary; he the arrival of the Lord. The woman
recognized the woman's arrival; the child, that
of the child. The women speak of grace; the
babies make it effective from within to the
advantage of their mothers who, by a double
miracle, prophesy under the inspiration of their
children. The infant leaped, the mother was
filled with the Spirit. The mother was not filled
before the son, but after the son was filled
with the Holy Spirit, he filled his mother too".[36]
"I kept my faith even when I said, 'I
am greatly afflicted'" (Ps 116:10): life
in old age and at times of suffering
46. With regard to the last
moments of life too, it would be anachronistic
to expect biblical revelation to make express
reference to present-day issues concerning respect
for elderly and sick persons, or to condemn
explicitly attempts to hasten their end by force.
The cultural and religious context of the Bible
is in no way touched by such temptations; indeed,
in that context the wisdom and experience of
the elderly are recognized as a unique source
of enrichment for the family and for society.
Old age is characterized by dignity and surrounded
with reverence (cf. 2 Mac 6:23). The just man
does not seek to be delivered from old age and
its burden; on the contrary his prayer is this:
"You, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O
Lord, from my youth... so even to old age and
grey hairs, O God, do not forsake me, till I
proclaim your might to all the generations to
come" (Ps 71:5,18). The ideal of the Messianic
age is presented as a time when "no more
shall there be ... an old man who does not fill
out his days" (Is 65:20).
In old age, how should one face the inevitable
decline of life? How should one act in the face
of death? The believer knows that his life is
in the hands of God: "You, O Lord, hold
my lot" (cf. Ps 16:5), and he accepts from
God the need to die: "This is the decree
from the Lord for all flesh, and how can you
reject the good pleasure of the Most High?"
(Sir 41:3-4). Man is not the master of life,
nor is he the master of death. In life and in
death, he has to entrust himself completely
to the "good pleasure of the Most High",
to his loving plan.
In moments of sickness too, man is called to
have the same trust in the Lord and to renew
his fundamental faith in the One who "heals
all your diseases" (cf. Ps 103:3). When
every hope of good health seems to fade before
a person's eyes--so as to make him cry out:
"My days are like an evening shadow; I
wither away like grass" (Ps 102:11)--even
then the believer is sustained by an unshakable
faith in God's life-giving power. Illness does
not drive such a person to despair and to seek
death, but makes him cry out in hope: "I
kept my faith, even when I said, 'I am greatly
afflicted"' (Ps 116:10); "O Lord my
God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed
me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from
Sheol, restored me to life from among those
gone down to the pit" (Ps 30:2-3).
47. The mission of Jesus,
with the many healings he performed, shows God's
great concern even for man's bodily life. Jesus,
as "the physician of the body and of the
spirit",[37] was sent by the Father to
proclaim the good news to the poor and to heal
the brokenhearted (cf. Lk 4:18; Is 61:1). Later,
when he sends his disciples into the world,
he gives them a mission, a mission in which
healing the sick goes hand in hand with the
proclamation of the Gospel: "And preach
as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is
at hand'. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse
lepers, cast out demons" (Mt 10:7-8; cf.
Mk 6:13; 16:18).
Certainly the life of the body in its earthly
state is not an absolute good for the believer,
especially as he may be asked to give up his
life for a greater good. As Jesus says: "Whoever
would save his life will lose it; and whoever
loses his life for my sake and the gospel's
will save it" (Mk 8:35). The New Testament
gives many different examples of this. Jesus
does not hesitate to sacrifice himself and he
freely makes of his life an offering to the
Father (cf. Jn 10:17) and to those who belong
to him (cf. Jn 10:15). The death of John the
Baptist, precursor of the Saviour, also testifies
that earthly existence is not an absolute good;
what is more important is remaining faithful
to the word of the Lord even at the risk of
one's life (cf. Mk 6:17-29). Stephen, losing
his earthly life because of his faithful witness
to the Lord's Resurrection, follows in the Master's
footsteps and meets those who are stoning him
with words of forgiveness (cf. Acts 7:59-60),
thus becoming the first of a countless host
of martyrs whom the Church has venerated since
the very beginning.
No one, however, can arbitrarily choose whether
to live or die; the absolute master of such
a decision is the Creator alone, in whom "we
live and move and have our being" (Acts
17:28).
"All who hold her fast will live"
(Bar 4:1): from the law of Sinai to the gift
of the Spirit
48. Life is indelibly marked
by a truth of its own. By accepting God's gift,
man is obliged to maintain life in this truth
which is essential to it. To detach oneself
from this truth is to condemn oneself to meaninglessness
and unhappiness, and possibly to become a threat
to the existence of others, since the barriers
guaranteeing respect for life and the defence
of life, in every circumstance, have been broken
down.
The truth of life is revealed by God's commandment.
The word of the Lord shows concretely the course
which life must follow if it is to respect its
own truth and to preserve its own dignity. The
protection of life is not only ensured by the
specific commandment "You shall not kill"
(Ex 20:13; Dt 5:17); the entire Law of the Lord
serves to protect life, because it reveals that
truth in which life finds its full meaning.
It is not surprising, therefore, that God's
Covenant with his people is so closely linked
to the perspective of life, also in its bodily
dimension. In that Covenant, God's commandment
is offered as the path of life: "I have
set before you this day life and good, death
and evil. If you obey the commandments of the
Lord your God which I command you this day,
by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his
ways, and by keeping his commandments and his
statutes and his ordinances, then you shall
live and multiply, and the Lord your God will
bless you in the land which you are entering
to take possession of" (Dt 30:15-16). What
is at stake is not only the land of Canaan and
the existence of the people of Israel, but also
the world of today and of the future, and the
existence of all humanity. In fact, it is altogether
impossible for life to remain authentic and
complete once it is detached from the good;
and the good, in its turn, is essentially bound
to the commandments of the Lord, that is, to
the "law of life" (Sir 17:11). The
good to be done is not added to life as a burden
which weighs on it, since the very purpose of
life is that good and only by doing it can life
be built up.
It is thus the Law as a whole which fully protects
human life. This explains why it is so hard
to remain faithful to the commandment "You
shall not kill" when the other "words
of life" (cf. Acts 7:38) with which this
commandment is bound up are not observed. Detached
from this wider framework, the commandment is
destined to become nothing more than an obligation
imposed from without, and very soon we begin
to look for its limits and try to find mitigating
factors and exceptions. Only when people are
open to the fullness of the truth about God,
man and history will the words "You shall
not kill" shine forth once more as a good
for man in himself and in his relations with
others. In such a perspective we can grasp the
full truth of the passage of the Book of Deuteronomy
which Jesus repeats in reply to the first temptation:
"Man does not live by bread alone, but...
by everything that proceeds out of the mouth
of the Lord" (Dt 8:3; cf. Mt 4:4).
It is by listening to the word of the Lord
that we are able to live in dignity and justice.
It is by observing the Law of God that we are
able to bring forth fruits of life and happiness:
"All who hold her fast will live, and those
who forsake her will die" (Bar 4:1).
49. The history of Israel
shows how difficult it is to remain faithful
to the Law of life which God has inscribed in
human hearts and which he gave on Sinai to the
people of the Covenant. When the people look
for ways of living which ignore God's plan,
it is the Prophets in particular who forcefully
remind them that the Lord alone is the authentic
source of life. Thus Jeremiah writes: "My
people have committed two evils: they have forsaken
me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed
out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns,
that can hold no water" (2:13). The Prophets
point an accusing finger at those who show contempt
for life and violate people's rights: "They
trample the head of the poor into the dust of
the earth" (Amos 2:7); "they have
filled this place with the blood of innocents"
(Jer 19:4). Among them, the Prophet Ezekiel
frequently condemns the city of Jerusalem, calling
it "the bloody city" (22:2; 24:6,
9), the "city that sheds blood in her own
midst" (22:3).
But while the Prophets condemn offences against
life, they are concerned above all to awaken
hope for a new principle of life, capable of
bringing about a renewed relationship with God
and with others, and of opening up new and extraordinary
possibilities for understanding and carrying
out all the demands inherent in the Gospel of
life. This will only be possible thanks to the
gift of God who purifies and renews: "I
will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you
shall be clean from all your uncleannesses,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit
I will put within you" (Ezek 36:25-26;
cf. Jer 31:34). This "new heart" will
make it possible to appreciate and achieve the
deepest and most authentic meaning of life:
namely, that of being a gift which is fully
realized in the giving of self. This is the
splendid message about the value of life which
comes to us from the figure of the Servant of
the Lord: "When he makes himself an offering
for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall
prolong his life ... he shall see the fruit
of the travail of his soul and be satisfied"
(Is 53:10, 11).
It is in the coming of Jesus of Nazareth that
the Law is fulfilled and that a new heart is
given through his Spirit. Jesus does not deny
the Law but brings it to fulfilment (cf. Mt
5:17): the Law and the Prophets are summed up
in the golden rule of mutual love (cf. Mt 7:12).
In Jesus the Law becomes once and for all the
"gospel", the good news of God's lordship
over the world, which brings all life back to
its roots and its original purpose. This is
the New Law, "the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus" (Rom 8:2), and its
fundamental expression, following the example
of the Lord who gave his life for his friends
(cf. Jn 15:13), is the gift of self love for
one's brothers and sisters: "We know that
we have passed out of death into life, because
we love the brethren" (1 Jn 3:14). This
is the law of freedom, joy and blessedness.
"They shall look on him whom they have
pierced" (Jn 19:37): the Gospel of life
is brought to fulfilment on the tree of the
Cross
50. At the end of this chapter, in which we
have reflected on the Christian message about
life, I would like to pause with each one of
you to contemplate the One who was pierced and
who draws all people to himself (cf. Jn 19:37;
12:32). Looking at "the spectacle"
of the Cross (cf. Lk 23:48) we shall discover
in this glorious tree the fulfilment and the
complete revelation of the whole Gospel of life.
In the early afternoon of Good Friday, "there
was darkness over the whole land ... while the
sun's light failed; and the curtain of the temple
was torn in two" (Lk 23:44, 45). This is
the symbol of a great cosmic disturbance and
a massive conflict between the forces of good
and the forces of evil, between life and death.
Today we too find ourselves in the midst of
a dramatic conflict between the "culture
of death" and the "culture of life".
But the glory of the Cross is not overcome by
this darkness; rather, it shines forth ever
more radiantly and brightly, and is revealed
as the centre, meaning and goal of all history
and of every human life.
Jesus is nailed to the Cross and is lifted
up from the earth. He experiences the moment
of his greatest "powerlessness", and
his life seems completely delivered to the derision
of his adversaries and into the hands of his
executioners: he is mocked, jeered at, insulted
(cf. Mk 15:24-36). And yet, precisely amid all
this, having seen him breathe his last, the
Roman centurion exclaims: "Truly this man
was the Son of God!" (Mk 15:39). It is
thus, at the moment of his greatest weakness,
that the Son of God is revealed for who he is:
on the Cross his glory is made manifest.
By his death, Jesus sheds light on the meaning
of the life and death of every human being.
Before he dies, Jesus prays to the Father, asking
forgiveness for his persecutors (cf. Lk 23:34),
and to the criminal who asks him to remember
him in his kingdom he replies: "Truly,
I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise"
(Lk 23:43). After his death "the tombs
also were opened, and many bodies of the saints
who had fallen asleep were raised" (Mt
27:52). The salvation wrought by Jesus is the
bestowal of life and resurrection. Throughout
his earthly life, Jesus had indeed bestowed
salvation by healing and doing good to all (cf.
Acts 10:38). But his miracles, healings and
even his raising of the dead were signs of another
salvation, a salvation which consists in the
forgiveness of sins, that is, in setting man
free from his greatest sickness and in raising
him to the very life of God.
On the Cross, the miracle of the serpent lifted
up by Moses in the desert (Jn 3:14-15; cf. Num
21:8-9) is renewed and brought to full and definitive
perfection. Today too, by looking upon the one
who was pierced, every person whose life is
threatened encounters the sure hope of finding
freedom and redemption.
51. But there is yet another particular event
which moves me deeply when I consider it. "When
Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, 'It
is finished'; and he bowed his head and gave
up his spirit" (Jn 19:30). Afterwards,
the Roman soldier "pierced his side with
a spear, and at once there came out blood and
water" (Jn 19:34).
Everything has now reached its complete fulfilment.
The "giving up" of the spirit describes
Jesus' death, a death like that of every other
human being, but it also seems to allude to
the "gift of the Spirit", by which
Jesus ransoms us from death and opens before
us a new life.
It is the very life of God which is now shared
with man. It is the life which through the Sacraments
of the Church--symbolized by the blood and water
flowing from Christ's side--is continually given
to God's children, making them the people of
the New Covenant. From the Cross, the source
of life, the "people of life" is born
and increases.
The contemplation of the Cross thus brings
us to the very heart of all that has taken place.
Jesus, who upon entering into the world said:
"I have come, O God, to do your will"
(cf. Heb 10:9), made himself obedient to the
Father in everything and, "having loved
his own who were in the world, he loved them
to the end" (Jn 13:1), giving himself completely
for them.
He who had come "not to be served but
to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for
many" (Mk 10:45), attains on the Cross
the heights of love: "Greater love has
no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends" (Jn 15:13). And he died
for us while we were yet sinners (cf. Rom 5:8).
In this way Jesus proclaims that life finds
its centre, its meaning and its fulfilment when
it is given up.
At this point our meditation becomes praise
and thanksgiving, and at the same time urges
us to imitate Christ and follow in his footsteps
(cf. 1 Pt 2:21).
We too are called to give our lives for our
brothers and sisters, and thus to realize in
the fullness of truth the meaning and destiny
of our existence.
We shall be able to do this because you, O
Lord, have given us the example and have bestowed
on us the power of your Spirit. We shall be
able to do this if every day, with you and like
you, we are obedient to the Father and do his
will.
Grant, therefore, that we may listen with open
and generous hearts to every word which proceeds
from the mouth of God. Thus we shall learn not
only to obey the commandment not to kill human
life, but also to revere life, to love it and
to foster it.
CHAPTER III
YOU SHALL NOT KILL
GOD'S HOLY LAW
"If you would enter life, keep the commandments"
(Mt 19:17): Gospel and commandment
52. "And behold, one
came up to him, saying, 'Teacher, what good
deed must I do, to have eternal life?"'
(Mt 19:6). Jesus replied, "If you would
enter life, keep the commandments" (Mt
19:17). The Teacher is speaking about eternal
life, that is, a sharing in the life of God
himself. This life is attained through the observance
of the Lord's commandments, including the commandment
"You shall not kill". This is the
first precept from the Decalogue which Jesus
quotes to the young man who asks him what commandments
he should observe: 'Jesus said, 'You shall not
kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall
not steal..."' (Mt 19:18).
God's commandment is never detached from his
love: it is always a gift meant for man's growth
and joy. As such, it represents an essential
and indispensable aspect of the Gospel, actually
becoming "gospel" itself: joyful good
news. The Gospel of life is both a great gift
of God and an exacting task for humanity. It
gives rise to amazement and gratitude in the
person graced with freedom, and it asks to be
welcomed, preserved and esteemed, with a deep
sense of responsibility. In giving life to man,
God demands that he love, respect and promote
life. The gift thus becomes a commandment, and
the commandment is itself a gift.
Man, as the living image of God, is willed
by his Creator to be ruler and lord. Saint Gregory
of Nyssa writes that "God made man capable
of carrying out his role as king of the earth
... Man was created in the image of the One
who governs the universe. Everything demonstrates
that from the beginning man's nature was marked
by royalty... Man is a king. Created to exercise
dominion over the world, he was given a likeness
to the king of the universe; he is the living
image who participates by his dignity in the
perfection of the divine archetype".[38]
Called to be fruitful and multiply, to subdue
the earth and to exercise dominion over other
lesser creatures (cf. Gen 1:28), man is ruler
and lord not only over things but especially
over himself,[39] and in a certain sense, over
the life which he has received and which he
is able to transmit through procreation, carried
out with love and respect for God's plan. Man's
lordship however is not absolute, but ministerial:
it is a real reflection of the unique and infinite
lordship of God. Hence man must exercise it
with wisdom and love, sharing in the boundless
wisdom and love of God. And this comes about
through obedience to God's holy Law: a free
and joyful obedience (cf. Ps 119), born of and
fostered by an awareness that the precepts of
the Lord are a gift of grace entrusted to man
always and solely for his good, for the preservation
of his personal dignity and the pursuit of his
happiness.
With regard to things, but even more with regard
to life, man is not the absolute master and
final judge, but rather--and this is where his
incomparable greatness lies--he is the "minister
of God's plan".[40]
Life is entrusted to man as a treasure which
must not be squandered, as a talent which must
be used well. Man must render an account of
it to his Master (cf. Mt 25:14-30; Lk 19:12-27).
"From man in regard to his fellow man
I will demand an accounting for human life"
(Gen 9:5): human life is sacred and inviolable
53. "Human life is sacred
because from its beginning it involves 'the
creative action of God', and it remains forever
in a special relationship with the Creator,
who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of
life from its beginning until its end: no one
can, in any circumstance, claim for himself
the right to destroy directly an innocent human
being".[41] With these words the Instruction
Donum Vitae sets forth the central content of
God's revelation on the sacredness and inviolability
of human life.
Sacred Scripture in fact presents the precept
"You shall not kill" as a divine commandment
(Ex 20:13; Dt 5:17). As I have already emphasized,
this commandment is found in the Decalogue,
at the heart of the Covenant which the Lord
makes with his chosen people; but it was already
contained in the original covenant between God
and humanity after the purifying punishment
of the Flood, caused by the spread of sin and
violence (cf. Gen 9:5-6).
God proclaims that he is absolute Lord of the
life of man, who is formed in his image and
likeness (cf. Gen 1:26-28). Human life is thus
given a sacred and inviolable character, which
reflects the inviolability of the Creator himself.
Precisely for this reason God will severely
judge every violation of the commandment "You
shall not kill", the commandment which
is at the basis of all life together in society.
He is the "goel", the defender of
the innocent (cf. Gen 4:9-15; Is 41:14; Jer
50:34; Ps 19:14). God thus shows that he does
not delight in the death of the living (cf.
Wis 1:13). Only Satan can delight therein: for
through his envy death entered the world (cf.
Wis 2:24). He who is "a murderer from the
beginning", is also "a liar and the
father of lies" (Jn 8:44). By deceiving
man he leads him to projects of sin and death,
making them appear as goals and fruits of life.
54. As explicitly formulated,
the precept "You shall not kill" is
strongly negative: it indicates the extreme
limit which can never be exceeded. Implicitly,
however, it encourages a positive attitude of
absolute respect for life; it leads to the promotion
of life and to progress along the way of a love
which gives, receives and serves. The people
of the Covenant, although slowly and with some
contradictions, progressively matured in this
way of thinking, and thus prepared for the great
proclamation of Jesus that the commandment to
love one's neighbour is like the commandment
to love God; "on these two commandments
depend all the law and the prophets" (cf.
Mt 22:36-40). Saint Paul emphasizes that "the
commandment... you shall not kill ... and any
other commandment, are summed up in this phrase:
'You shall love your neighbour as yourself'"
(Rom 13:9; cf. Gal 5:14). Taken up and brought
to fulfilment in the New Law, the commandment
"You shall not kill" stands as an
indispensable condition for being able "to
enter life" (cf. Mt 19:16-19). In this
same perspective, the words of the Apostle John
have a categorical ring: "Anyone who hates
his brother is a murderer, and you know that
no murderer has eternal life abiding in him"
(1 Jn 3:15).
From the beginning, the living Tradition of
the Church--as shown by the Didache, the most
ancient non-biblical Christian writing--categorically
repeated the commandment "You shall not
kill": "There are two ways, a way
of life and a way of death; there is a great
difference between them... In accordance with
the precept of the teaching: you shall not kill...
you shall not put a child to death by abortion
nor kill it once it is born ... The way of death
is this: ... they show no compassion for the
poor, they do not suffer with the suffering,
they do not acknowledge their Creator, they
kill their children and by abortion cause God's
creatures to perish; they drive away the needy,
oppress the suffering, they are advocates of
the rich and unjust judges of the poor; they
are filled with every sin. May you be able to
stay ever apart, O children, from all these
sins!".[42]
As time passed, the Church's Tradition has
always consistently taught the absolute and
unchanging value of the commandment "You
shall not kill". It is a known fact that
in the first centuries, murder was put among
the three most serious sins--along with apostasy
and adultery--and required a particularly heavy
and lengthy public penance before the repentant
murderer could be granted forgiveness and readmission
to the ecclesial community.
55. This should not cause
surprise: to kill a human being, in whom the
image of God is present, is a particularly serious
sin. Only God is the master of life! Yet from
the beginning, faced with the many and often
tragic cases which occur in the life of individuals
and society, Christian reflection has sought
a fuller and deeper understanding of what God's
commandment prohibits and prescribes.[43] There
are in fact situations in which values proposed
by God's Law seem to involve a genuine paradox.
This happens for example in the case of legitimate
defence, in which the right to protect one's
own life and the duty not to harm someone else's
life are difficult to reconcile in practice.
Certainly, the intrinsic value of life and the
duty to love oneself no less than others are
the basis of a true right to self-defence. The
demanding commandment of love of neighbour,
set forth in the Old Testament and confirmed
by Jesus, itself presupposes love of oneself
as the basis of comparison: "You shall
love your neighbour as yourself" (Mk 12:31).
Consequently, no one can renounce the right
to self-defence out of lack of love for life
or for self. This can only be done in virtue
of a heroic love which deepens and transfigures
the love of self into a radical self-offering,
according to the spirit of the Gospel Beatitudes
(cf. Mt 5:38-40). The sublime example of this
self-offering is the Lord Jesus himself.
Moreover, "legitimate defence can be not
only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible
for another's life, the common good of the family
or of the State".[44] Unfortunately it
happens that the need to render the aggressor
incapable of causing harm sometimes involves
taking his life. In this case, the fatal outcome
is attributable to the aggressor whose action
brought it about, even though he may not be
morally responsible because of a lack of the
use of reason.[45]
56. This is the context in
which to place the problem of the death penalty.
On this matter there is a growing tendency,
both in the Church and in civil society, to
demand that it be applied in a very limited
way or even that it be abolished completely.
The problem must be viewed in the context of
a system of penal justice ever more in line
with human dignity and thus, in the end, with
God's plan for man and society. The primary
purpose of the punishment which society inflicts
is "to redress the disorder caused by the
offence".[46] Public authority must redress
the violation of personal and social rights
by imposing on the offender an adequate punishment
for the crime, as a condition for the offender
to regain the exercise of his or her freedom.
In this way authority also fulfils the purpose
of defending public order and ensuring people's
safety, while at the same time offering the
offender an incentive and help to change his
or her behaviour and be rehabilitated.[47]
It is clear that, for these purposes to be
achieved, the nature and extent of the punishment
must be carefully evaluated and decided upon,
and ought not go to the extreme of executing
the offender except in cases of absolute necessity:
in other words, when it would not be possible
otherwise to defend society. Today however,
as a result of steady improvements in the organization
of the penal system, such cases are very rare,
if not practically non-existent.
In any event, the principle set forth in the
new Catechism of the Catholic Church remains
valid: "If bloodless means are sufficient
to defend human lives against an aggressor and
to protect public order and the safety of persons,
public authority must limit itself to such means,
because they better correspond to the concrete
conditions of the common good and are more in
conformity to the dignity of the human person".[48]
57. If such great care must
be taken to respect every life, even that of
criminals and unjust aggressors, the commandment
"You shall not kill" has absolute
value when it refers to the innocent person.
And all the more so in the case of weak and
defenceless human beings, who find their ultimate
defence against the arrogance and caprice of
others only in the absolute binding force of
God's commandment.
In effect, the absolute inviolability of innocent
human life is a moral truth clearly taught by
Sacred Scripture, constantly upheld in the Church's
Tradition and consistently proposed by her Magisterium.
This consistent teaching is the evident result
of that "supernatural sense of the faith"
which, inspired and sustained by the Holy Spirit,
safeguards the People of God from error when
"it shows universal agreement in matters
of faith and morals".[49]
Faced with the progressive weakening in individual
consciences and in society of the sense of the
absolute and grave moral illicitness of the
direct taking of all innocent human life, especially
at its beginning and at its end, the Church's
Magisterium has spoken out with increasing frequency
in defence of the sacredness and inviolability
of human life. The Papal Magisterium, particularly
insistent in this regard, has always been seconded
by that of the Bishops, with numerous and comprehensive
doctrinal and pastoral documents issued either
by Episcopal Conferences or by individual Bishops.
The Second Vatican Council also addressed the
matter forcefully, in a brief but incisive passage.[50]
Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred
upon Peter and his Successors, and in communion
with the Bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm
that the direct and voluntary killing of an
innocent human being is always gravely immoral.
This doctrine, based upon that unwritten law
which man, in the light of reason, finds in
his own heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15), is reaffirmed
by Sacred Scripture, transmitted by the Tradition
of the Church and taught by the ordinary and
universal Magisterium.[51]
The deliberate decision to deprive an innocent
human being of his life is always morally evil
and can never be licit either as an end in itself
or as a means to a good end. It is in fact a
grave act of disobedience to the moral law,
and indeed to God himself, the author and guarantor
of that law; it contradicts the fundamental
virtues of justice and charity. "Nothing
and no one can in any way permit the killing
of an innocent human being, whether a fetus
or an embryo, an infant or an adult, an old
person, or one suffering from an incurable disease,
or a person who is dying. Furthermore, no one
is permitted to ask for this act of killing,
either for himself or herself or for another
person entrusted to his or her care, nor can
he or she consent to it, either explicitly or
implicitly. Nor can any authority legitimately
recommend or permit such an action".[52]
As far as the right to life is concerned, every
innocent human being is absolutely equal to
all others. This equality is the basis of all
authentic social relationships which, to be
truly such, can only be founded on truth and
justice, recognizing and protecting every man
and woman as a person and not as an object to
be used. Before the moral norm which prohibits
the direct taking of the life of an innocent
human being "there are no privileges or
exceptions for anyone. It makes no difference
whether one is the master of the world or the
'poorest of the poor' on the face of the earth.
Before the demands of morality we are all absolutely
equal".[53]
"Your eyes beheld my unformed substance"
(Ps 139:16): the unspeakable crime of abortion
58. Among all the crimes which
can be committed against life, procured abortion
has characteristics making it particularly serious
and deplorable. The Second Vatican Council defines
abortion, together with infanticide, as an "unspeakable
crime".[54]
But today, in many people's consciences, the
perception of its gravity has become progressively
obscured. The acceptance of abortion in the
popular mind, in behaviour and even in law itself,
is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous
crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming
more and more incapable of distinguishing between
good and evil, even when the fundamental right
to life is at stake. Given such a grave situation,
we need now more than ever to have the courage
to look the truth in the eye and to call things
by their proper name, without yielding to convenient
compromises or to the temptation of self-deception.
In this regard the reproach of the Prophet is
extremely straightforward: "Woe to those
who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness
for light and light for darkness" (Is 5:20).
Especially in the case of abortion there is
a widespread use of ambiguous terminology, such
as "interruption of pregnancy", which
tends to hide abortion's true nature and to
attenuate its seriousness in public opinion.
Perhaps this linguistic phenomenon is itself
a symptom of an uneasiness of conscience. But
no word has the power to change the reality
of things: procured abortion is the deliberate
and direct killing, by whatever means it is
carried out, of a human being in the initial
phase of his or her existence, extending from
conception to birth.
The moral gravity of procured abortion is apparent
in all its truth if we recognize that we are
dealing with murder and, in particular, when
we consider the specific elements involved.
The one eliminated is a human being at the very
beginning of life. No one more absolutely innocent
could be imagined. In no way could this human
being ever be considered an aggressor, much
less an unjust aggressor! He or she is weak,
defenceless, even to the point of lacking that
minimal form of defence consisting in the poignant
power of a newborn baby's cries and tears. The
unborn child is totally entrusted to the protection
and care of the woman carrying him or her in
the womb. And yet sometimes it is precisely
the mother herself who makes the decision and
asks for the child to be eliminated, and who
then goes about having it done.
It is true that the decision to have an abortion
is often tragic and painful for the mother,
insofar as the decision to rid herself of the
fruit of conception is not made for purely selfish
reasons or out of convenience, but out of a
desire to protect certain important values such
as her own health or a decent standard of living
for the other members of the family. Sometimes
it is feared that the child to be born would
live in such conditions that it would be better
if the birth did not take place. Nevertheless,
these reasons and others like them, however
serious and tragic, can never justify the deliberate
killing of an innocent human being.
59. As well as the mother,
there are often other people too who decide
upon the death of the child in the womb. In
the first place, the father of the child may
be to blame, not only when he directly pressures
the woman to have an abortion, but also when
he indirectly encourages such a decision on
her part by leaving her alone to face the problems
of pregnancy:[55] in this way the family is
thus mortally wounded and profaned in its nature
as a community of love and in its vocation to
be the "sanctuary of life". Nor can
one overlook the pressures which sometimes come
from the wider family circle and from friends.
Sometimes the woman is subjected to such strong
pressure that she feels psychologically forced
to have an abortion: certainly in this case
moral responsibility lies particularly with
those who have directly or indirectly obliged
her to have an abortion. Doctors and nurses
are also responsible, when they place at the
service of death skills which were acquired
for promoting life.
But responsibility likewise falls on the legislators
who have promoted and approved abortion laws,
and, to the extent that they have a say in the
matter, on the administrators of the health-care
centres where abortions are performed. A general
and no less serious responsibility lies with
those who have encouraged the spread of an attitude
of sexual permissiveness and a lack of esteem
for motherhood, and with those who should have
ensured--but did not--effective family and social
policies in support of families, especially
larger families and those with particular financial
and educational needs. Finally, one cannot overlook
the network of complicity which reaches out
to include international institutions, foundations
and associations which systematically campaign
for the legalization and spread of abortion
in the world. In this sense abortion goes beyond
the responsibility of individuals and beyond
the harm done to them, and takes on a distinctly
social dimension. It is a most serious wound
inflicted on society and its culture by the
very people who ought to be society's promoters
and defenders. As I wrote in my Letter to Families,
"we are facing an immense threat to life:
not only to the life of individuals but also
to that of civilization itself".[56] We
are facing what can be called a "structure
of sin" which opposes human life not yet
born.
60. Some people try to justify
abortion by claiming that the result of conception,
at least up to a certain number of days, cannot
yet be considered a personal human life. But
in fact, "from the time that the ovum is
fertilized, a life is begun which is neither
that of the father nor the mother; it is rather
the life of a new human being with his own growth.
It would never be made human if it were not
human already. This has always been clear, and...
modern genetic science offers clear confirmation.
It has demonstrated that from the first instant
there is established the programme of what this
living being will be: a person, this individual
person with his characteristic aspects already
well determined. Right from fertilization the
adventure of a human life begins, and each of
its capacities requires time--a rather lengthy
time--to find its place and to be in a position
to act".[57] Even if the presence of a
spiritual soul cannot be ascertained by empirical
data, the results themselves of scientific research
on the human embryo provide "a valuable
indication for discerning by the use of reason
a personal presence at the moment of the first
appearance of a human life: how could a human
individual not be a human person?".[58]
Furthermore, what is at stake is so important
that, from the standpoint of moral obligation,
the mere probability that a human person is
involved would suffice to justify an absolutely
clear prohibition of any intervention aimed
at killing a human embryo. Precisely for this
reason, over and above all scientific debates
and those philosophical affirmations to which
the Magisterium has not expressly committed
itself, the Church has always taught and continues
to teach that the result of human procreation,
from the first moment of its existence, must
be guaranteed that unconditional respect which
is morally due to the human being in his or
her totality and unity as body and spirit: "The
human being is to be respected and treated as
a person from the moment of conception; and
therefore from that same moment his rights as
a person must be recognized, among which in
the first place is the inviolable right of every
innocent human being to life".[59]
61. The texts of Sacred Scripture
never address the question of deliberate abortion
and so do not directly and specifically condemn
it. But they show such great respect for the
human being in the mother's womb that they require
as a logical consequence that God's commandment
"You shall not kill" be extended to
the unborn child as well.
Human life is sacred and inviolable at every
moment of existence, including the initial phase
which precedes birth. All human beings, from
their mothers' womb, belong to God who searches
them and knows them, who forms them and knits
them together with his own hands, who gazes
on them when they are tiny shapeless embryos
and already sees in them the adults of tomorrow
whose days are numbered and whose vocation is
even now written in the "book of life"
(cf. Ps 139: 1, 13-16). There too, when they
are still in their mothers' womb--as many passages
of the Bible bear witness[60]--they are the
personal objects of God's loving and fatherly
providence.
Christian Tradition--as the Declaration issued
by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith points out so well[6l]--is clear and unanimous,
from the beginning up to our own day, in describing
abortion as a particularly grave moral disorder.
From its first contacts with the Greco-Roman
world, where abortion and infanticide were widely
practised, the first Christian community, by
its teaching and practice, radically opposed
the customs rampant in that society, as is clearly
shown by the Didache mentioned earlier.[62]
Among the Greek ecclesiastical writers, Athenagoras
records that Christians consider as murderesses
women who have recourse to abortifacient medicines,
because children, even if they are still in
their mother's womb, "are already under
the protection of Divine Providence".[63]
Among the Latin authors, Tertullian affirms:
"It is anticipated murder to prevent someone
from being born; it makes little difference
whether one kills a soul already born or puts
it to death at birth. He who will one day be
a man is a man already".[64]
Throughout Christianity's two thousand year
history, this same doctrine has been constantly
taught by the Fathers of the Church and by her
Pastors and Doctors. Even scientific and philosophical
discussions about the precise moment of the
infusion of the spiritual soul have never given
rise to any hesitation about the moral condemnation
of abortion.
62. The more recent Papal
Magisterium has vigorously reaffirmed this common
doctrine. Pius XI in particular, in his Encyclical
Casti Connubii, rejected the specious justifications
of abortion.[65] Pius XII excluded all direct
abortion, i.e., every act tending directly to
destroy human life in the womb "whether
such destruction is intended as an end or only
as a means to an end".[66] John XXIII reaffirmed
that human life is sacred because "from
its very beginning it directly involves God's
creative activity".[67] The Second Vatican
Council, as mentioned earlier, sternly condemned
abortion: "From the moment of its conception
life must be guarded with the greatest care,
while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable
crimes".[68]
The Church's canonical discipline, from the
earliest centuries, has inflicted penal sanctions
on those guilty of abortion. This practice,
with more or less severe penalties, has been
confirmed in various periods of history. The
1917 Code of Canon Law punished abortion with
excommunication.[69] The revised canonical legislation
continues this tradition when it decrees that
"a person who actually procures an abortion
incurs automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication".[70]
The excommunication affects all those who commit
this crime with knowledge of the penalty attached,
and thus includes those accomplices without
whose help the crime would not have been committed.[71]
By this reiterated sanction, the Church makes
clear that abortion is a most serious and dangerous
crime, thereby encouraging those who commit
it to seek without delay the path of conversion.
In the Church the purpose of the penalty of
excommunication is to make an individual fully
aware of the gravity of a certain sin and then
to foster genuine conversion and repentance.
Given such unanimity in the doctrinal and disciplinary
tradition of the Church, Paul VI was able to
declare that this tradition is unchanged and
unchangeable.[72] Therefore, by the authority
which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors,
in communion with the Bishops--who on various
occasions have condemned abortion and who in
the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed
throughout the world, have shown unanimous agreement
concerning this doctrine--I declare that direct
abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end
or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral
disorder, since it is the deliberate killing
of an innocent human being. This doctrine is
based upon the natural law and upon the written
Word of God, is transmitted by the Church's
Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal
Magisterium.[73]
No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever
can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically
illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of
God which is written in every human heart, knowable
by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church.
63. This evaluation of the
morality of abortion is to be applied also to
the recent forms of intervention on human embryos
which, although carried out for purposes legitimate
in themselves, inevitably involve the killing
of those embryos. This is the case with experimentation
on embryos, which is becoming increasingly widespread
in the field of biomedical research and is legally
permitted in some countries. Although "one
must uphold as licit procedures carried out
on the human embryo which respect the life and
integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate
risks for it, but rather are directed to its
healing, the improvement of its condition of
health, or its individual survival",[74]
it must nonetheless be stated that the use of
human embryos or fetuses as an object of experimentation
constitutes a crime against their dignity as
human beings who have a right to the same respect
owed to a child once born, just as to every
person.[75]
This moral condemnation also regards procedures
that exploit living human embryos and fetuses--sometimes
specifically "produced" for this purpose
by in vitro fertilization--either to be used
as "biological material" or as providers
of organs or tissue for transplants in the treatment
of certain diseases. The killing of innocent
human creatures, even if carried out to help
others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable
act.
Special attention must be given to evaluating
the morality of prenatal diagnostic techniques
which enable the early detection of possible
anomalies in the unborn child. In view of the
complexity of these techniques, an accurate
and systematic moral judgment is necessary.
When they do not involve disproportionate risks
for the child and the mother, and are meant
to make possible early therapy or even to favour
a serene and informed acceptance of the child
not yet born, these techniques are morally licit.
But since the possibilities of prenatal therapy
are today still limited, it not infrequently
happens that these techniques are used with
a eugenic intention which accepts selective
abortion in order to prevent the birth of children
affected by various types of anomalies. Such
an attitude is shameful and utterly reprehensible,
since it presumes to measure the value of a
human life only within the parameters of "normality"
and physical well-being, thus opening the way
to legitimizing infanticide and euthanasia as
well.
And yet the courage and the serenity with which
so many of our brothers and sisters suffering
from serious disabilities lead their lives when
they are shown acceptance and love bears eloquent
witness to what gives authentic value to life,
and makes it, even in difficult conditions,
something precious for them and for others.
The Church is close to those married couples
who, with great anguish and suffering, willingly
accept gravely handicapped children. She is
also grateful to all those families which, through
adoption, welcome children abandoned by their
parents because of disabilities or illnesses.
"It is I who bring both death and life"
(Dt 32:39): the tragedy of euthanasia
64. At the other end of life's spectrum, men
and women find themselves facing the mystery
of death. Today, as a result of advances in
medicine and in a cultural context frequently
closed to the transcendent, the experience of
dying is marked by new features. When the prevailing
tendency is to value life only to the extent
that it brings pleasure and well-being, suffering
seems like an unbearable setback, something
from which one must be freed at all costs. Death
is considered "senseless" if it suddenly
interrupts a life still open to a future of
new and interesting experiences. But it becomes
a "rightful liberation" once life
is held to be no longer meaningful because it
is filled with pain and inexorably doomed to
even greater suffering.
Furthermore, when he denies or neglects his
fundamental relationship to God, man thinks
he is his own rule and measure, with the right
to demand that society should guarantee him
the ways and means of deciding what to do with
his life in full and complete autonomy. It is
especially people in the developed countries
who act in this way: they feel encouraged to
do so also by the constant progress of medicine
and its ever more advanced techniques. By using
highly sophisticated systems and equipment,
science and medical practice today are able
not only to attend to cases formerly considered
untreatable and to reduce or eliminate pain,
but also to sustain and prolong life even in
situations of extreme frailty, to resuscitate
artificially patients whose basic biological
functions have undergone sudden collapse, and
to use special procedures to make organs available
for transplanting.
In this context the temptation grows to have
recourse to euthanasia, that is, to take control
of death and bring it about before its time,
"gently" ending one's own life or
the life of others. In reality, what might seem
logical and humane, when looked at more closely
is seen to be senseless and inhumane. Here we
are faced with one of the more alarming symptoms
of the "culture of death", which is
advancing above all in prosperous societies,
marked by an attitude of excessive preoccupation
with efficiency and which sees the growing number
of elderly and disabled people as intolerable
and too burdensome. These people are very often
isolated by their families and by society, which
are organized almost exclusively on the basis
of criteria of productive efficiency, according
to which a hopelessly impaired life no longer
has any value.
65. For a correct moral judgment
on euthanasia, in the first place a clear definition
is required. Euthanasia in the strict sense
is understood to be an action or omission which
of itself and by intention causes death, with
the purpose of eliminating all suffering. "Euthanasia's
terms of reference, therefore, are to be found
in the intention of the will and in the methods
used".[76]
Euthanasia must be distinguished from the decision
to forego so-called "aggressive medical
treatment", in other words, medical procedures
which no longer correspond to the real situation
of the patient, either because they are by now
disproportionate to any expected results or
because they impose an excessive burden on the
patient and his family. In such situations,
when death is clearly imminent and inevitable,
one can in conscience "refuse forms of
treatment that would only secure a precarious
and burdensome prolongation of life, so long
as the normal care due to the sick person in
similar cases is not interrupted".[77]
Certainly there is a moral obligation to care
for oneself and to allow oneself to be cared
for, but this duty must take account of concrete
circumstances. It needs to be determined whether
the means of treatment available are objectively
proportionate to the prospects for improvement.
To forego extraordinary or disproportionate
means is not the equivalent of suicide or euthanasia;
it rather expresses acceptance of the human
condition in the face of death.[78]
In modern medicine, increased attention is
being given to what are called "methods
of palliative care", which seek to make
suffering more bearable in the final stages
of illness and to ensure that the patient is
supported and accompanied in his or her ordeal.
Among the questions which arise in this context
is that of the licitness of using various types
of painkillers and sedatives for relieving the
patient's pain when this involves the risk of
shortening life. While praise may be due to
the person who voluntarily accepts suffering
by forgoing treatment with pain-killers in order
to remain fully lucid and, if a believer, to
share consciously in the Lord's Passion, such
"heroic" behaviour cannot be considered
the duty of everyone. Pius XII affirmed that
it is licit to relieve pain by narcotics, even
when the result is decreased consciousness and
a shortening of life, "if no other means
exist, and if, in the given circumstances, this
does not prevent the carrying out of other religious
and moral duties".[79] In such a case,
death is not willed or sought, even though for
reasonable motives one runs the risk of it:
there is simply a desire to ease pain effectively
by using the analgesics which medicine provides.
All the same, "it is not right to deprive
the dying person of consciousness without a
serious reason":[80] as they approach death
people ought to be able to satisfy their moral
and family duties, and above all they ought
to be able to prepare in a fully conscious way
for their definitive meeting with God.
Taking into account these distinctions, in
harmony with the Magisterium of my Predecessors[81]
and in communion with the Bishops of the Catholic
Church, I confirm that euthanasia is a grave
violation of the law of God, since it is the
deliberate and morally unacceptable killing
of a human person. This doctrine is based upon
the natural law and upon the written word of
God, is transmitted by the Church's Tradition
and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.[82]
Depending on the circumstances, this practice
involves the malice proper to suicide or murder.
66. Suicide is always as morally
objectionable as murder. The Church's tradition
has always rejected it as a gravely evil choice.[83]
Even though a certain psychological, cultural
and social conditioning may induce a person
to carry out an action which so radically contradicts
the innate inclination to life, thus lessening
or removing subjective responsibility, suicide,
when viewed objectively, is a gravely immoral
act. In fact, it involves the rejection of love
of self and the renunciation of the obligation
of justice and charity towards one's neighbour,
towards the communities to which one belongs,
and towards society as a whole.[84] In its deepest
reality, suicide represents a rejection of God's
absolute sovereignty over life and death, as
proclaimed in the prayer of the ancient sage
of Israel: "You have power over life and
death; you lead men down to the gates of Hades
and back again" (Wis 16:13; cf. Tob 13:2).
To concur with the intention of another person
to commit suicide and to help in carrying it
out through so-called "assisted suicide"
means to cooperate in, and at times to be the
actual perpetrator of, an injustice which can
never be excused, even if it is requested. In
a remarkably relevant passage Saint Augustine
writes that "it is never licit to kill
another: even if he should wish it, indeed if
he request it because, hanging between life
and death, he begs for help in freeing the soul
struggling against the bonds of the body and
longing to be released; nor is it licit even
when a sick person is no longer able to live".[85]
Even when not motivated by a selfish refusal
to be burdened with the life of someone who
is suffering, euthanasia must be called a false
mercy, and indeed a disturbing "perversion"
of mercy. True "compassion" leads
to sharing another's pain; it does not kill
the person whose suffering we cannot bear. Moreover,
the act of euthanasia appears all the more perverse
if it is carried out by those, like relatives,
who are supposed to treat a family member with
patience and love, or by those, such as doctors,
who by virtue of their specific profession are
supposed to care for the sick person even in
the most painful terminal stages.
The choice of euthanasia becomes more serious
when it takes the form of a murder committed
by others on a person who has in no way requested
it and who has never consented to it. The height
of arbitrariness and injustice is reached when
certain people, such as physicians or legislators,
arrogate to themselves the power to decide who
ought to live and who ought to die. Once again
we find ourselves before the temptation of Eden:
to become like God who "knows good and
evil" (cf. Gen 3:5). God alone has the
power over life and death: "It is I who
bring both death and life" (Dt 32:39; cf.
2 Kg 5:7; I Sam 2:6). But he only exercises
this power in accordance with a plan of wisdom
and love. When man usurps this power, being
enslaved by a foolish and selfish way of thinking,
he inevitably uses it for injustice and death.
Thus the life of the person who is weak is put
into the hands of the one who is strong; in
society the sense of justice is lost, and mutual
trust, the basis of every authentic interpersonal
relationship, is undermined at its root.
67. Quite different from this
is the way of love and true mercy, which our
common humanity calls for, and upon which faith
in Christ the Redeemer, who died and rose again,
sheds ever new light. The request which arises
from the human heart in the supreme confrontation
with suffering and death, especially when faced
with the temptation to give up in utter desperation,
is above all a request for companionship, sympathy
and support in the time of trial. It is a plea
for help to keep on hoping when all human hopes
fail. As the Second Vatican Council reminds
us: "It is in the face of death that the
riddle of human existence becomes most acute"
and yet "man rightly follows the intuition
of his heart when he abhors and repudiates the
absolute ruin and total disappearance of his
own person. Man rebels against death because
he bears in himself an eternal seed which cannot
be reduced to mere matter".[86]
This natural aversion to death and this incipient
hope of immortality are illumined and brought
to fulfilment by Christian faith, which both
promises and offers a share in the victory of
the Risen Christ: it is the victory of the One
who, by his redemptive death, has set man free
from death, "the wages of sin" (Rom
6:23), and has given him the Spirit, the pledge
of resurrection and of life (cf. Rom 8:11).
The certainty of future immortality and hope
in the promised resurrection cast new light
on the mystery of suffering and death, and fill
the believer with an extraordinary capacity
to trust fully in the plan of God.
The Apostle Paul expressed this newness in
terms of belonging completely to the Lord who
embraces every human condition: "None of
us lives to himself, and none of us dies to
himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and
if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether
we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's"
(Rom 14:7-8). Dying to the Lord means experiencing
one's death as the supreme act of obedience
to the Father (cf. Phil 2:8), being ready to
meet death at the "hour" willed and
chosen by him (cf. Jn 13:1), which can only
mean when one's earthly pilgrimage is completed.
Living to the Lord also means recognizing that
suffering, while still an evil and a trial in
itself, can always become a source of good.
It becomes such if it is experienced for love
and with love through sharing, by God's gracious
gift and one's own personal and free choice,
in the suffering of Christ Crucified. In this
way, the person who lives his suffering in the
Lord grows more fully conformed to him (cf.
Phil 3:10; 1 Pet 2:21) and more closely associated
with his redemptive work on behalf of the Church
and humanity.[87] This was the experience of
Saint Paul, which every person who suffers is
called to relive: "I rejoice in my sufferings
for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what
is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake
of his Body, that is, the Church" (Col
1:24).
"We must obey God rather than men"
(Acts 5:29): civil law and the moral law
68. One of the specific characteristics
of present-day attacks on human life--as has
already been said several times--consists in
the trend to demand a legal justification for
them, as if they were rights which the State,
at least under certain conditions, must acknowledge
as belonging to citizens. Consequently, there
is a tendency to claim that it should be possible
to exercise these rights with the safe and free
assistance of doctors and medical personnel.
It is often claimed that the life of an unborn
child or a seriously disabled person is only
a relative good: according to a proportionalist
approach, or one of sheer calculation, this
good should be compared with and balanced against
other goods. It is even maintained that only
someone present and personally involved in a
concrete situation can correctly judge the goods
at stake: consequently, only that person would
be able to decide on the morality of his choice.
The State therefore, in the interest of civil
coexistence and social harmony, should respect
this choice, even to the point of permitting
abortion and euthanasia.
At other times, it is claimed that civil law
cannot demand that all citizens should live
according to moral standards higher than what
all citizens themselves acknowledge and share.
Hence the law should always express the opinion
and will of the majority of citizens and recognize
that they have, at least in certain extreme
cases, the right even to abortion and euthanasia.
Moreover the prohibition and the punishment
of abortion and euthanasia in these cases would
inevitably lead--so it is said--to an increase
of illegal practices: and these would not be
subject to necessary control by society and
would be carried out in a medically unsafe way.
The question is also raised whether supporting
a law which in practice cannot be enforced would
not ultimately undermine the authority of all
laws.
Finally, the more radical views go so far as
to maintain that in a modern and pluralistic
society people should be allowed complete freedom
to dispose of their own lives as well as of
the lives of the unborn: it is asserted that
it is not the task of the law to choose between
different moral opinions, and still less can
the law claim to impose one particular opinion
to the detriment of others.
69. In any case, in the democratic
culture of our time it is commonly held that
the legal system of any society should limit
itself to taking account of and accepting the
convictions of the majority. It should therefore
be based solely upon what the majority itself
considers moral and actually practises. Furthermore,
if it is believed that an objective truth shared
by all is de facto unattainable, then respect
for the freedom of the citizens--who in a democratic
system are considered the true rulers--would
require that on the legislative level the autonomy
of individual consciences be acknowledged. Consequently,
when establishing those norms which are absolutely
necessary for social coexistence, the only determining
factor should be the will of the majority, whatever
this may be. Hence every politician, in his
or her activity, should clearly separate the
realm of private conscience from that of public
conduct.
As a result we have what appear to be two diametrically
opposed tendencies. On the one hand, individuals
claim for themselves in the moral sphere the
most complete freedom of choice and demand that
the State should not adopt or impose any ethical
position but limit itself to guaranteeing maximum
space for the freedom of each individual, with
the sole limitation of not infringing on the
freedom and rights of any other citizen. On
the other hand, it is held that, in the exercise
of public and professional duties, respect for
other people's freedom of choice requires that
each one should set aside his or her own convictions
in order to satisfy every demand of the citizens
which is recognized and guaranteed by law; in
carrying out one's duties the only moral criterion
should be what is laid down by the law itself.
Individual responsibility is thus turned over
to the civil law, with a renouncing of personal
conscience, at least in the public sphere.
70. At the basis of all these
tendencies lies the ethical relativism which
characterizes much of present-day culture. There
are those who consider such relativism an essential
condition of democracy, inasmuch as it alone
is held to guarantee tolerance, mutual respect
between people and acceptance of the decisions
of the majority, whereas moral norms considered
to be objective and binding are held to lead
to authoritarianism and intolerance.
But it is precisely the issue of respect for
life which shows what misunderstandings and
contradictions, accompanied by terrible practical
consequences, are concealed in this position.
It is true that history has known cases where
crimes have been committed in the name of "truth".
But equally grave crimes and radical denials
of freedom have also been committed and are
still being committed in the name of "ethical
relativism". When a parliamentary or social
majority decrees that it is legal, at least
under certain conditions, to kill unborn human
life, is it not really making a "tyrannical"
decision with regard to the weakest and most
defenceless of human beings? Everyone's conscience
rightly rejects those crimes against humanity
of which our century has had such sad experience.
But would these crimes cease to be crimes if,
instead of being committed by unscrupulous tyrants,
they were legitimated by popular consensus?
Democracy cannot be idolized to the point of
making it a substitute for morality or a panacea
for immorality. Fundamentally, democracy is
a "system" and as such is a means
and not an end. Its "moral" value
is not automatic, but depends on conformity
to the moral law to which it, like every other
form of human behaviour, must be subject: in
other words, its morality depends on the morality
of the ends which it pursues and of the means
which it employs. If today we see an almost
universal consensus with regard to the value
of democracy, this is to be considered a positive
"sign of the times", as the Church's
Magisterium has frequently noted.[88] But the
value of democracy stands or falls with the
values which it embodies and promotes. Of course,
values such as the dignity of every human person,
respect for inviolable and inalienable human
rights, and the adoption of the "common
good" as the end and criterion regulating
political life are certainly fundamental and
not to be ignored.
The basis of these values cannot be provisional
and changeable "majority" opinions,
but only the acknowledgment of an objective
moral law which, as the "natural law"
written in the human heart, is the obligatory
point of reference for civil law itself. If,
as a result of a tragic obscuring of the collective
conscience, an attitude of scepticism were to
succeed in bringing into question even the fundamental
principles of the moral law, the democratic
system itself would be shaken in its foundations,
and would be reduced to a mere mechanism for
regulating different and opposing interests
on a purely empirical basis.[89]
Some might think that even this function, in
the absence of anything better, should be valued
for the sake of peace in society. While one
acknowledges some element of truth in this point
of view, it is easy to see that without an objective
moral grounding not even democracy is capable
of ensuring a stable peace, especially since
peace which is not built upon the values of
the dignity of every individual and of solidarity
between all people frequently proves to be illusory.
Even in participatory systems of government,
the regulation of interests often occurs to
the advantage of the most powerful, since they
are the ones most capable of manoeuvering not
only the levers of power but also of shaping
the formation of consensus. In such a situation,
democracy easily becomes an empty word.
71. It is therefore urgently
necessary, for the future of society and the
development of a sound democracy, to rediscover
those essential and innate human and moral values
which flow from the very truth of the human
being and express and safeguard the dignity
of the person: values which no individual, no
majority and no State can ever create, modify
or destroy, but must only acknowledge, respect
and promote.
Consequently there is a need to recover the
basic elements of a vision of the relationship
between civil law and moral law, which are put
forward by the Church, but which are also part
of the patrimony of the great juridical traditions
of humanity.
Certainly the purpose of civil law is different
and more limited in scope than that of the moral
law. But "in no sphere of life can the
civil law take the place of conscience or dictate
norms concerning things which are outside its
competence",[90] which is that of ensuring
the common good of people through the recognition
and defence of their fundamental rights, and
the promotion of peace and of public morality.[91]
The real purpose of civil law is to guarantee
an ordered social coexistence in true justice,
so that all may "lead a quiet and peaceable
life, godly and respectful in every way"
(1 Tim 2:2). Precisely for this reason, civil
law must ensure that all members of society
enjoy respect for certain fundamental rights
which innately belong to the person, rights
which every positive law must recognize and
guarantee. First and fundamental among these
is the inviolable right to life of every innocent
human being. While public authority can sometimes
choose not to put a stop to something which--were
it prohibited--would cause more serious harm,[92]
it can never presume to legitimize as a right
of individuals--even if they are the majority
of the members of society--an offence against
other persons caused by the disregard of so
fundamental a right as the right to life. The
legal toleration of abortion or of euthanasia
can in no way claim to be based on respect for
the conscience of others, precisely because
society has the right and the duty to protect
itself against the abuses which can occur in
the name of conscience and under the pretext
of freedom.[93]
In the Encyclical Pacem in Terris, John XXIII
pointed out that "it is generally accepted
today that the common good is best safeguarded
when personal rights and duties are guaranteed.
The chief concern of civil authorities must
therefore be to ensure that these rights are
recognized, respected, co-ordinated, defended
and promoted, and that each individual is enabled
to perform his duties more easily. For 'to safeguard
the inviolable rights of the human person, and
to facilitate the performance of his duties,
is the principal duty of every public authority'.
Thus any government which refused to recognize
human rights or acted in violation of them,
would not only fail in its duty; its decrees
would be wholly lacking in binding force".[94]
72. The doctrine on the necessary
conformity of civil law with the moral law is
in continuity with the whole tradition of the
Church. This is clear once more from John XXIII's
Encyclical:
"Authority is a postulate of the moral
order and derives from God. Consequently, laws
and decrees enacted in contravention of the
moral order, and hence of the divine will, can
have no binding force in conscience...; indeed,
the passing of such laws undermines the very
nature of authority and results in shameful
abuse".[95] This is the clear teaching
of Saint Thomas Aquinas, who writes that "human
law is law inasmuch as it is in conformity with
right reason and thus derives from the eternal
law. But when a law is contrary to reason, it
is called an unjust law; but in this case it
ceases to be a law and becomes instead an act
of violence".[96] And again: "Every
law made by man can be called a law insofar
as it derives from the natural law. But if it
is somehow opposed to the natural law, then
it is not really a law but rather a corruption
of the law".[97]
Now the first and most immediate application
of this teaching concerns a human law which
disregards the fundamental right and source
of all other rights which is the right to life,
a right belonging to every individual. Consequently,
laws which legitimize the direct killing of
innocent human beings through abortion or euthanasia
are in complete opposition to the inviolable
right to life proper to every individual; they
thus deny the equality of everyone before the
law. It might be objected that such is not the
case in euthanasia, when it is requested with
full awareness by the person involved. But any
State which made such a request legitimate and
authorized it to be carried out would be legalizing
a case of suicide-murder, contrary to the fundamental
principles of absolute respect for life and
of the protection of every innocent life. In
this way the State contributes to lessening
respect for life and opens the door to ways
of acting which are destructive of trust in
relations between people. Laws which authorize
and promote abortion and euthanasia are therefore
radically opposed not only to the good of the
individual but also to the common good; as such
they are completely lacking in authentic juridical
validity. Disregard for the right to life, precisely
because it leads to the killing of the person
whom society exists to serve, is what most directly
conflicts with the possibility of achieving
the common good. Consequently, a civil law authorizing
abortion or euthanasia ceases by that very fact
to be a true, morally binding civil law.
73. Abortion and euthanasia
are thus crimes which no human law can claim
to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience
to obey such laws; instead there is a grave
and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious
objection. From the very beginnings of the Church,
the apostolic preaching reminded Christians
of their duty to obey legitimately constituted
public authorities (cf. Rom 13:1-7; 1 Pet 2:13-14),
but at the same time it firmly warned that "we
must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
In the Old Testament, precisely in regard to
threats against life, we find a significant
example of resistance to the unjust command
of those in authority. After Pharaoh ordered
the killing of all newborn males, the Hebrew
midwives refused. "They did not do as the
king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male
children live" (Ex 1:17). But the ultimate
reason for their action should be noted: "the
midwives feared God" (ibid. ). It is precisely
from obedience to God--to whom alone is due
that fear which is acknowledgment of his absolute
sovereignty--that the strength and the courage
to resist unjust human laws are born. It is
the strength and the courage of those prepared
even to be imprisoned or put to the sword, in
the certainty that this is what makes for "the
endurance and faith of the saints" (Rev
13:10).
In the case of an intrinsically unjust law,
such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia,
it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to
"take part in a propaganda campaign in
favour of such a law, or vote for it".[98]
A particular problem of conscience can arise
in cases where a legislative vote would be decisive
for the passage of a more restrictive law, aimed
at limiting the number of authorized abortions,
in place of a more permissive law already passed
or ready to be voted on. Such cases are not
infrequent. It is a fact that while in some
parts of the world there continue to be campaigns
to introduce laws favouring abortion, often
supported by powerful international organizations,
in other nations--particularly those which have
already experienced the bitter fruits of such
permissive legislation--there are growing signs
of a rethinking in this matter. In a case like
the one just mentioned, when it is not possible
to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion
law, an elected official, whose absolute personal
opposition to procured abortion was well known,
could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting
the harm done by such a law and at lessening
its negative consequences at the level of general
opinion and public morality. This does not in
fact represent an illicit cooperation with an
unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper
attempt to limit its evil aspects.
74. The passing of unjust
laws often raises difficult problems of conscience
for morally upright people with regard to the
issue of cooperation, since they have a right
to demand not to be forced to take part in morally
evil actions. Sometimes the choices which have
to be made are difficult; they may require the
sacrifice of prestigious professional positions
or the relinquishing of reasonable hopes of
career advancement. In other cases, it can happen
that carrying out certain actions, which are
provided for by legislation that overall is
unjust, but which in themselves are indifferent,
or even positive, can serve to protect human
lives under threat. There may be reason to fear,
however, that willingness to carry out such
actions will not only cause scandal and weaken
the necessary opposition to attacks on life,
but will gradually lead to further capitulation
to a mentality of permissiveness.
In order to shed light on this difficult question,
it is necessary to recall the general principles
concerning cooperation in evil actions. Christians,
like all people of good will, are called upon
under grave obligation of conscience not to
cooperate formally in practices which, even
if permitted by civil legislation, are contrary
to God's law. Indeed, from the moral standpoint,
it is never licit to cooperate formally in evil.
Such cooperation occurs when an action, either
by its very nature or by the form it takes in
a concrete situation, can be defined as a direct
participation in an act against innocent human
life or a sharing in the immoral intention of
the person committing it. This cooperation can
never be justified either by invoking respect
for the freedom of others or by appealing to
the fact that civil law permits it or requires
it. Each individual in fact has moral responsibility
for the acts which he personally performs; no
one can be exempted from this responsibility,
and on the basis of it everyone will be judged
by God himself (cf. Rom 2:6; 14:12).
To refuse to take part in committing an injustice
is not only a moral duty; it is also a basic
human right. Were this not so, the human person
would be forced to perform an action intrinsically
incompatible with human dignity, and in this
way human freedom itself, the authentic meaning
and purpose of which are found in its orientation
to the true and the good, would be radically
compromised. What is at stake therefore is an
essential right which, precisely as such, should
be acknowledged and protected by civil law.
In this sense, the opportunity to refuse to
take part in the phases of consultation, preparation
and execution of these acts against life should
be guaranteed to physicians, health-care personnel,
and directors of hospitals, clinics and convalescent
facilities. Those who have recourse to conscientious
objection must be protected not only from legal
penalties but also from any negative effects
on the legal, disciplinary, financial and professional
plane.
"You shall love your neighbour as yourself"
(Lk 10:27): "promote" life
75. God's commandments teach
us the way of life. The negative moral precepts,
which declare that the choice of certain actions
is morally unacceptable, have an absolute value
for human freedom: they are valid always and
everywhere, without exception. They make it
clear that the choice of certain ways of acting
is radically incompatible with the love of God
and with the dignity of the person created in
his image. Such choices cannot be redeemed by
the goodness of any intention or of any consequence;
they are irrevocably opposed to the bond between
persons; they contradict the fundamental decision
to direct one's life to God.[99]
In this sense, the negative moral precepts
have an extremely important positive function.
The "no" which they unconditionally
require makes clear the absolute limit beneath
which free individuals cannot lower themselves.
At the same time they indicate the minimum which
they must respect and from which they must start
out in order to say "yes" over and
over again, a "yes" which will gradually
embrace the entire horizon of the good (cf.
Mt 5:48). The commandments, in particular the
negative moral precepts, are the beginning and
the first necessary stage of the journey towards
freedom. As Saint Augustine writes, "the
beginning of freedom is to be free from crimes...
like murder, adultery, fornication, theft, fraud,
sacrilege and so forth. Only when one stops
committing these crimes (and no Christian should
commit them), one begins to lift up one's head
towards freedom. But this is only the beginning
of freedom, not perfect freedom".[100]
76. The commandment "You
shall not kill" thus establishes the point
of departure for the start of true freedom.
It leads us to promote life actively, and to
develop particular ways of thinking and acting
which serve life. In this way we exercise our
responsibility towards the persons entrusted
to us and we show, in deeds and in truth, our
gratitude to God for the great gift of life
(cf. Ps 139:13-14).
The Creator has entrusted man's life to his
responsible concern, not to make arbitrary use
of it, but to preserve it with wisdom and to
care for it with loving fidelity. The God of
the Covenant has entrusted the life of every
individual to his or her fellow human beings,
brothers and sisters, according to the law of
reciprocity in giving and receiving, of self-giving
and of the acceptance of others. In the fullness
of time, by taking flesh and giving his life
for us, the Son of God showed what heights and
depths this law of reciprocity can reach. With
the gift of his Spirit, Christ gives new content
and meaning to the law of reciprocity, to our
being entrusted to one another. The Spirit who
builds up communion in love creates between
us a new fraternity and solidarity, a true reflection
of the mystery of mutual self-giving and receiving
proper to the Most Holy Trinity. The Spirit
becomes the new law which gives strength to
believers and awakens in them a responsibility
for sharing the gift of self and for accepting
others, as a sharing in the boundless love of
Jesus Christ himself.
77. This new law also gives
spirit and shape to the commandment "You
shall not kill". For the Christian it involves
an absolute imperative to respect, love and
promote the life of even brother and sister,
in accordance with the requirements of God's
bountiful love in Jesus Christ. "He laid
down his life for us; and we ought to lay down
our lives for the brethren" (1 Jn 3:16).
The commandment "You shall not kill",
even in its more positive aspects of respecting,
loving and promoting human life, is binding
on every individual human being. It resounds
in the moral conscience of everyone as an irrepressible
echo of the original covenant of God the Creator
with mankind. It can be recognized by everyone
through the light of reason and it can be observed
thanks to the mysterious working of the Spirit
who, blowing where he wills (cf. Jn 3:8), comes
to and involves every person living in this
world.
It is therefore a service of love which we
are all committed to ensure to our neighbour,
that his or her life may be always defended
and promoted, especially when it is weak or
threatened. It is not only a personal but a
social concern which we must all foster: a concern
to make unconditional respect for human life
the foundation of a renewed society.
We are asked to love and honour the life of
every man and woman and to work with perseverance
and courage so that our time, marked by all
too many signs of death, may at last witness
the establishment of a new culture of life,
the fruit of the culture of truth and of love.
CHAPTER IV
YOU DID IT TO ME
FOR A NEW CULTURE OF HUMAN LIFE
"You are God's own people, that you may
declare the wonderful deeds of him who called
you out of darkness into his marvellous light"
(1 Pet 2:9): a people of life and for life
78. The Church has received
the Gospel as a proclamation and a source of
joy and salvation. She has received it as a
gift from Jesus, sent by the Father "to
preach good news to the poor" (Lk 4:18).
She has received it through the Apostles, sent
by Christ to the whole world (cf. Mk 16:15;
Mt 28:19-20). Born from this evangelizing activity,
the Church hears every day the echo of Saint
Paul's words of warning: "Woe to me if
I do not preach the Gospel!" (1 Cor 9:16).
As Paul VI wrote, "evangelization is the
grace and vocation proper to the Church, her
deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize".[101]
Evangelization is an all-embracing, progressive
activity through which the Church participates
in the prophetic, priestly and royal mission
of the Lord Jesus. It is therefore inextricably
linked to preaching, celebration and the service
of charity. Evangelization is a profoundly ecclesial
act, which calls all the various workers of
the Gospel to action, according to their individual
charisms and ministry.
This is also the case with regard to the proclamation
of the Gospel of life, an integral part of that
Gospel which is Jesus Christ himself. We are
at the service of this Gospel, sustained by
the awareness that we have received it as a
gift and are sent to preach it to all humanity,
"to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
With humility and gratitude we know that we
are the people of life and for life, and this
is how we present ourselves to everyone.
79. We are the people of life
because God, in his unconditional love, has
given us the Gospel of life and by this same
Gospel we have been transformed and saved. We
have been ransomed by the "Author of life"
(Acts 3:15) at the price of his precious blood
(cf. 1 Cor 6:20; 7:23; 1 Pet 1:19). Through
the waters of Baptism we have been made a part
of him (cf. Rom 6:4-5; Col 2:12), as branches
which draw nourishment and fruitfulness from
the one tree (cf. Jn 15:5). Interiorly renewed
by the grace of the Spirit, "who is the
Lord and giver of life", we have become
a people for life and we are called to act accordingly.
We have been sent. For us, being at the service
of life is not a boast but rather a duty, born
of our awareness of being "God's own people,
that we may declare the wonderful deeds of him
who called us out of darkness into his marvellous
light" (cf. 1 Pet 2:9). On our journey
we are guided and sustained by the law of love:
a love which has as its source and model the
Son of God made man, who "by dying gave
life to the world".[102]
We have been sent as a people. Everyone has
an obligation to be at the service of life.
This is a properly "ecclesial" responsibility,
which requires concerted and generous action
by all the members and by all sectors of the
Christian community. This community commitment
does not however eliminate or lessen the responsibility
of each individual, called by the Lord to "become
the neighbour" of everyone: "Go and
do likewise" (Lk 10:37).
Together we all sense our duty to preach the
Gospel of life, to celebrate it in the Liturgy
and in our whole existence, and to serve it
with the various programmes and structures which
support and promote life.
"That which we have seen and heard we
proclaim also to you" (1 Jn 1:3): proclaiming
the Gospel of life
80. "That which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked
upon and touched with our hands, concerning
the word of life... we proclaim also to you,
so that you may have fellowship with us"
(1 Jn 1:1, 3). Jesus is the only Gospel: we
have nothing further to say or any other witness
to bear.
To proclaim Jesus is itself to proclaim life.
For Jesus is "the word of life" (1
Jn 1:1). In him "life was made manifest"
(1 Jn 1:2); he himself is "the eternal
life which was with the Father and was made
manifest to us" (1 Jn 1:2). By the gift
of the Spirit, this same life has been bestowed
on us. It is in being destined to life in its
fullness, to "eternal life", that
every person's earthly life acquires its full
meaning.
Enlightened by this Gospel of life, we feel
a need To proclaim it and to bear witness to
it in all its marvellous newness. Since it is
one with Jesus himself, who makes all things
new[103] and conquers the "oldness"
which comes from sin and leads to death,[104]
this Gospel exceeds every human expectation
and reveals the sublime heights to which the
dignity of the human person is raised through
grace. This is how Saint Gregory of Nyssa understands
it: "Man, as a being, is of no account;
he is dust, grass, vanity. But once he is adopted
by the God of the universe as a son, he becomes
part of the family of that Being, whose excellence
and greatness no one can see, hear or understand.
What words, thoughts or flight of the spirit
can praise the superabundance of this grace?
Man surpasses his nature: mortal, he becomes
immortal; perishable, he becomes imperishable;
fleeting, he becomes eternal; human, he becomes
divine".[105]
Gratitude and joy at the incomparable dignity
of man impel us to share this message with everyone:
"that which we have seen and heard we proclaim
also to you, so that you may have fellowship
with us" (1 Jn 1:3). We need to bring the
Gospel of life to the heart of every man and
woman and to make it penetrate every part of
society.
81. This involves above all
proclaiming the core of this Gospel. It is the
proclamation of a living God who is close to
us, who calls us to profound communion with
himself and awakens in us the certain hope of
eternal life. It is the affirmation of the inseparable
connection between the person, his life and
his bodiliness. It is the presentation of human
life as a life of relationship, a gift of God,
the fruit and sign of his love. It is the proclamation
that Jesus has a unique relationship with every
person, which enables us to see in every human
face the face of Christ. It is the call for
a "sincere gift of self" as the fullest
way to realize our personal freedom.
It also involves making clear all the consequences
of this Gospel. These can be summed up as follows:
human life, as a gift of God, is sacred and
inviolable. For this reason procured abortion
and euthanasia are absolutely unacceptable.
Not only must human life not be taken, but it
must be protected with loving concern. The meaning
of life is found in giving and receiving love,
and in this light human sexuality and procreation
reach their true and full significance. Love
also gives meaning to suffering and death; despite
the mystery which surrounds them, they can become
saving events. Respect for life requires that
science and technology should always be at the
service of man and his integral development.
Society as a whole must respect, defend and
promote the dignity of every human person, at
every moment and in every condition of that
person's life.
82. To be truly a people at
the service of life we must propose these truths
constantly and courageously from the very first
proclamation of the Gospel, and thereafter in
catechesis, in the various forms of preaching,
in personal dialogue and in all educational
activity. Teachers, catechists and theologians
have the task of emphasizing the anthropological
reasons upon which respect for every human life
is based. In this way, by making the newness
of the Gospel of life shine forth, we can also
help everyone discover in the light of reason
and of personal experience how the Christian
message fully reveals what man is and the meaning
of his being and existence. We shall find important
points of contact and dialogue also with nonbelievers,
in our common commitment to the establishment
of a new culture of life.
Faced with so many opposing points of view,
and a widespread rejection of sound doctrine
concerning human life, we can feel that Paul's
entreaty to Timothy is also addressed to us:
"Preach the word, be urgent in season and
out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort,
be unfailing in patience and in teaching"
(2 Tim 4:2). This exhortation should resound
with special force in the hearts of those members
of the Church who directly share, in different
ways, in her mission as "teacher"
of the truth. May it resound above all for us
who are Bishops: we are the first ones called
to be untiring preachers of the Gospel of life.
We are also entrusted with the task of ensuring
that the doctrine which is once again being
set forth in this Encyclical is faithfully handed
on in its integrity. We must use appropriate
means to defend the faithful from all teaching
which is contrary to it. We need to make sure
that in theological faculties, seminaries and
Catholic institutions sound doctrine is taught,
explained and more fully investigated.[106]
May Paul's exhortation strike a chord in all
theologians, pastors, teachers and in all those
responsible for catechesis and the formation
of consciences. Aware of their specific role,
may they never be so grievously irresponsible
as to betray the truth and their own mission
by proposing personal ideas contrary to the
Gospel of life as faithfully presented and interpreted
by the Magisterium.
In the proclamation of this Gospel, we must
not fear hostility or unpopularity, and we must
refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might
conform us to the world's way of thinking (cf.
Rom 12:2). We must be in the world but not of
the world (cf. Jn 15:19; 17:16), drawing our
strength from Christ, who by his Death and Resurrection
has overcome the world (cf. Jn 16:33).
"I give you thanks that I am fearfully,
wonderfully made" (Ps 139:14): celebrating
the Gospel of life
83. Because we have been sent
into the world as a "people for life",
our proclamation must also become a genuine
celebration of the Gospel of life. This celebration,
with the evocative power of its gestures, symbols
and rites, should become a precious and significant
setting in which the beauty and grandeur of
this Gospel is handed on.
For this to happen, we need first of all to
foster, in ourselves and in others, a contemplative
outlook.[107] Such an outlook arises from faith
in the God of life, who has created every individual
as a "wonder" (cf. Ps 139:14). It
is the outlook of those who see life in its
deeper meaning, who grasp its utter gratuitousness,
its beauty and its invitation to freedom and
responsibility. It is the outlook of those who
do not presume to take possession of reality
but instead accept it as a gift, discovering
in all things the reflection of the Creator
and seeing in every person his living image
(cf. Gen 1:27; Ps 8:5). This outlook does not
give in to discouragement when confronted by
those who are sick, suffering, outcast or at
death's door. Instead, in all these situations
it feels challenged to find meaning, and precisely
in these circumstances it is open to perceiving
in the face of every person a call to encounter,
dialogue and solidarity.
It is time for all of us to adopt this outlook,
and with deep religious awe to rediscover the
ability to revere and honour every person, as
Paul VI invited us to do in one of his first
Christmas messages.[108] Inspired by this contemplative
outlook, the new people of the redeemed cannot
but respond with songs of joy, praise and thanksgiving
for the priceless gift of life, for the mystery
of every individual's call to share through
Christ in the life of grace and in an existence
of unending communion with God our Creator and
Father.
84. To celebrate the Gospel
of life means to celebrate the God of life,
the God who gives life: "We must celebrate
Eternal Life, from which every other life proceeds.
From this, in proportion to its capacities,
every being which in any way participates in
life, receives life. This Divine Life, which
is above every other life, gives and preserves
life. Every life and every living movement proceed
from this Life which transcends all life and
every principle of life. It is to this that
souls owe their incorruptibility; and because
of this all animals and plants live, which receive
only the faintest glimmer of life. To men, beings
made of spirit and matter, Life grants life.
Even if we should abandon Life, because of its
overflowing love for man, it converts us and
calls us back to itself. Not only this: it promises
to bring us, soul and body, to perfect life,
to immortality. It is too little to say that
this Life is alive: it is the Principle of life,
the Cause and sole Wellspring of life. Every
living thing must contemplate it and give it
praise: it is Life which overflows with life".[109]
Like the Psalmist, we too, in our daily prayer
as individuals and as a community, praise and
bless God our Father, who knitted us together
in our mother's womb, and saw and loved us while
we were still without form (cf. Ps 139:13, 15-16).
We exclaim with overwhelming joy: "I give
you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully
made; wonderful are your works. You know me
through and through" (Ps 139:14). Indeed,
"despite its hardships, its hidden mysteries,
its suffering and its inevitable frailty, this
mortal life is a most beautiful thing, a marvel
ever new and moving, an event worthy of being
exalted in joy and glory".[110] Moreover,
man and his life appear to us not only as one
of the greatest marvels of creation: for God
has granted to man a dignity which is near to
divine (Ps 8:5-6). In every child which is born
and in every person who lives or dies we see
the image of God's glory. We celebrate this
glory in every human being, a sign of the living
God, an icon of Jesus Christ.
We are called to express wonder and gratitude
for the gift of life and to welcome, savour
and share the Gospel of life not only in our
personal and community prayer, but above all
in the celebrations of the liturgical year.
Particularly important in this regard are the
Sacraments, the efficacious signs of the presence
and saving action of the Lord Jesus in Christian
life. The Sacraments make us sharers in divine
life, and provide the spiritual strength necessary
to experience life, suffering and death in their
fullest meaning. Thanks to a genuine rediscovery
and a better appreciation of the significance
of these rites, our liturgical celebrations,
especially celebrations of the Sacraments, will
be ever more capable of expressing the full
truth about birth, life, suffering and death,
and will help us to live these moments as a
participation in the Paschal Mystery of the
Crucified and Risen Christ.
85. In celebrating the Gospel
of life we also need to appreciate and make
good use of the wealth of gestures and symbols
present in the traditions and customs of different
cultures and peoples. There are special times
and ways in which the peoples of different nations
and cultures express joy for a newborn life,
respect for and protection of individual human
lives, care for the suffering or needy, closeness
to the elderly and the dying, participation
in the sorrow of those who mourn, and hope and
desire for immortality.
In view of this and following the suggestion
made by the Cardinals in the Consistory of 1991,
I propose that a Day for Life be celebrated
each year in every country, as already established
by some Episcopal Conferences. The celebration
of this Day should be planned and carried out
with the active participation of all sectors
of the local Church. Its primary purpose should
be to foster in individual consciences, in families,
in the Church and in civil society a recognition
of the meaning and value of human life at every
stage and in every condition. Particular attention
should be drawn to the seriousness of abortion
and euthanasia, without neglecting other aspects
of life which from time to time deserve to be
given careful consideration, as occasion and
circumstances demand.
86. As part of the spiritual
worship acceptable to God (cf. Rom 12:1), the
Gospel of life is to be celebrated above all
in daily living, which should be filled with
self-giving love for others. In this way, our
lives will become a genuine and responsible
acceptance of the gift of life and a heartfelt
song of praise and gratitude to God who has
given us this gift. This is already happening
in the many different acts of selfless generosity,
often humble and hidden, carried out by men
and women, children and adults, the young and
the old, the healthy and the sick.
It is in this context, so humanly rich and
filled with love, that heroic actions too are
born. These are the most solemn celebration
of the Gospel of life, for they proclaim it
by the total gift of self. They are the radiant
manifestation of the highest degree of love,
which is to give one's life for the person loved
(cf. Jn 15:13). They are a sharing in the mystery
of the Cross, in which Jesus reveals the value
of every person, and how life attains its fullness
in the sincere gift of self. Over and above
such outstanding moments, there is an everyday
heroism, made up of gestures of sharing, big
or small, which build up an authentic culture
of life. A particularly praiseworthy example
of such gestures is the donation of organs,
performed in an ethically acceptable manner,
with a view to offering a chance of health and
even of life itself to the sick who sometimes
have no other hope.
Part of this daily heroism is also the silent
but effective and eloquent witness of all those
"brave mothers who devote themselves to
their own family without reserve, who suffer
in giving birth to their children and who are
ready to make any effort, to face any sacrifice,
in order to pass on to them the best of themselves".[111]
In living out their mission "these heroic
women do not always find support in the world
around them. On the contrary, the cultural models
frequently promoted and broadcast by the media
do not encourage motherhood. In the name of
progress and modernity the values of fidelity,
chastity, sacrifice, to which a host of Christian
wives and mothers have borne and continue to
bear outstanding witness, are presented as obsolete
... We thank you, heroic mothers, for your invincible
love! We thank you for your intrepid trust in
God and in his love. We thank you for the sacrifice
of your life ... In the Paschal Mystery, Christ
restores to you the gift you gave him. Indeed,
he has the power to give you back the life you
gave him as an offering".[112]
"What does it profit, my brethren, if
a man says he has faith but has not works?"
(Jas 2:14): serving the Gospel of life
87. By virtue of our sharing
in Christ's royal mission, our support and promotion
of human life must be accomplished through the
service of charity, which finds expression in
personal witness, various forms of volunteer
work, social activity and political commitment.
This is a particularly pressing need at the
present time, when the "culture of death"
so forcefully opposes the "culture of life"
and often seems to have the upper hand. But
even before that it is a need which springs
from "faith working through love"
(Gal 5:6). As the Letter of James admonishes
us: "What does it profit, my brethren,
if a man says he has faith but has not works?
Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister
is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one
of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed
and filled', without giving them the things
needed for the body, what does it profit? So
faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead"
(2: 14-17).
In our service of charity, we must be inspired
and distinguished by a specific attitude: we
must care for the other as a person for whom
God has made us responsible. As disciples of
Jesus, we are called to become neighbours to
everyone (cf. Lk 10:29-37), and to show special
favour to those who are poorest, most alone
and most in need. In helping the hungry, the
thirsty, the foreigner, the naked, the sick,
the imprisoned--as well as the child in the
womb and the old person who is suffering or
near death--we have the opportunity to serve
Jesus. He himself said: "As you did it
to one of the least of these my brethren, you
did it to me" (Mt 25:40). Hence we cannot
but feel called to account and judged by the
ever relevant words of Saint John Chrysostom:
"Do you wish to honour the body of Christ?
Do not neglect it when you find it naked. Do
not do it homage here in the church with silk
fabrics only to neglect it outside where it
suffers cold and nakedness".[113]
Where life is involved, the service of charity
must be profoundly consistent. It cannot tolerate
bias and discrimination, for human life is sacred
and inviolable at every stage and in every situation;
it is an indivisible good. We need then to "show
care" for all life and for the life of
everyone. Indeed, at an even deeper level, we
need to go to the very roots of life and love.
It is this deep love for every man and woman
which has given rise down the centuries to an
outstanding history of charity, a history which
has brought into being in the Church and society
many forms of service to life which evoke admiration
from all unbiased observers. Every Christian
community, with a renewed sense of responsibility,
must continue to write this history through
various kinds of pastoral and social activity.
To this end, appropriate and effective programmes
of support for new life must be implemented,
with special closeness to mothers who, even
without the help of the father, are not afraid
to bring their child into the world and to raise
it. Similar care must be shown for the life
of the marginalized or suffering, especially
in its final phases.
88. All of this involves a
patient and fearless work of education aimed
at encouraging one and all to bear each other's
burdens (cf. Gal 6:2). It requires a continuous
promotion of vocations to service, particularly
among the young. It involves the implementation
of long-term practical projects and initiatives
inspired by the Gospel.
Many are the means towards this end which need
to be developed with skill and serious commitment.
At the first stage of life, centres for natural
methods of regulating fertility should be promoted
as a valuable help to responsible parenthood,
in which all individuals, and in the first place
the child, are recognized and respected in their
own right, and where every decision is guided
by the ideal of the sincere gift of self. Marriage
and family counselling agencies by their specific
work of guidance and prevention, carried out
in accordance with an anthropology consistent
with the Christian vision of the person, of
the couple and of sexuality, also offer valuable
help in rediscovering the meaning of love and
life, and in supporting and accompanying every
family in its mission as the "sanctuary
of life". Newborn life is also served by
centres of assistance and homes or centres where
new life receives a welcome. Thanks to the work
of such centres, many unmarried mothers and
couples in difficulty discover new hope and
find assistance and support in overcoming hardship
and the fear of accepting a newly conceived
life or life which has just come into the world.
When life is challenged by conditions of hardship,
maladjustment, sickness or rejection, other
programmes--such as communities for treating
drug addiction, residential communities for
minors or the mentally ill, care and relief
centres for AIDS patients, associations for
solidarity especially towards the disabled--are
eloquent expressions of what charity is able
to devise in order to give everyone new reasons
for hope and practical possibilities for life.
And when earthly existence draws to a close,
it is again charity which finds the most appropriate
means for enabling the elderly, especially those
who can no longer look after themselves, and
the terminally ill to enjoy genuinely humane
assistance and to receive an adequate response
to their needs, in particular their anxiety
and their loneliness. In these cases the role
of families is indispensable; yet families can
receive much help from social welfare agencies
and, if necessary, from recourse to palliative
care, taking advantage of suitable medical and
social services available in public institutions
or in the home.
In particular, the role of hospitals, clinics
and convalescent homes needs to be reconsidered.
These should not merely be institutions where
care is provided for the sick or the dying.
Above all they should be places where suffering,
pain and death are acknowledged and understood
in their human and specifically Christian meaning.
This must be especially evident and effective
in institutes staffed by Religious or in any
way connected with the Church.
89. Agencies and centres of
service to life, and all other initiatives of
support and solidarity which circumstances may
from time to time suggest, need to be directed
by people who are generous in their involvement
and fully aware of the importance of the Gospel
of life for the good of individuals and society.
A unique responsibility belongs to health-care
personnel: doctors, pharmacists, nurses, chaplains,
men and women religious, administrators and
volunteers. Their profession calls for them
to be guardians and servants of human life.
In today's cultural and social context, in which
science and the practice of medicine risk losing
sight of their inherent ethical dimension, health-care
professionals can be strongly tempted at times
to become manipulators of life, or even agents
of death. In the face of this temptation their
responsibility today is greatly increased. Its
deepest inspiration and strongest support lie
in the intrinsic and undeniable ethical dimension
of the health-care profession, something already
recognized by the ancient and still relevant
Hippocratic Oath, which requires every doctor
to commit himself to absolute respect for human
life and its sacredness.
Absolute respect for every innocent human life
also requires the exercise of conscientious
objection in relation to procured abortion and
euthanasia. "Causing death" can never
be considered a form of medical treatment, even
when the intention is solely to comply with
the patient's request. Rather, it runs completely
counter to the health-care profession, which
is meant to be an impassioned and unflinching
affirmation of life. Biomedical research too,
a field which promises great benefits for humanity,
must always reject experimentation, research
or applications which disregard the inviolable
dignity of the human being, and thus cease to
be at the service of people and become instead
means which, under the guise of helping people,
actually harm them.
90. Volunteer workers have a specific role
to play: they make a valuable contribution to
the service of life when they combine professional
ability and generous, selfless love. The Gospel
of life inspires them to lift their feelings
of good will towards others to the heights of
Christ's charity; to renew every day, amid hard
work and weariness, their awareness of the dignity
of every person; to search out people's needs
and, when necessary, to set out on new paths
where needs are greater but care and support
weaker.
If charity is to be realistic and effective,
it demands that the Gospel of life be implemented
also by means of certain forms of social activity
and commitment in the political field, as a
way of defending and promoting the value of
life in our ever more complex and pluralistic
societies. Individuals, families, groups and
associations, albeit for different reasons and
in different ways, all have a responsibility
for shaping society and developing cultural,
economic, political and legislative projects
which, with respect for all and in keeping with
democratic principles, will contribute to the
building of a society in which the dignity of
each person is recognized and protected and
the lives of all are defended and enhanced.
This task is the particular responsibility
of civil leaders. Called to serve the people
and the common good, they have a duty to make
courageous choices in support of life, especially
through legislative measures. In a democratic
system, where laws and decisions are made on
the basis of the consensus of many, the sense
of personal responsibility in the consciences
of individuals invested with authority may be
weakened. But no one can ever renounce this
responsibility, especially when he or she has
a legislative or decision-making mandate, which
calls that person to answer to God, to his or
her own conscience and to the whole of society
for choices which may be contrary to the common
good. Although laws are not the only means of
protecting human life, nevertheless they do
play a very important and sometimes decisive
role in influencing patterns of thought and
behaviour. I repeat once more that a law which
violates an innocent person's natural right
to life is unjust and, as such, is not valid
as a law. For this reason I urgently appeal
once more to all political leaders not to pass
laws which, by disregarding the dignity of the
person, undermine the very fabric of society.
The Church well knows that it is difficult
to mount an effective legal defence of life
in pluralistic democracies, because of the presence
of strong cultural currents with differing outlooks.
At the same time, certain that moral truth cannot
fail to make its presence deeply felt in every
conscience, the Church encourages political
leaders, starting with those who are Christians,
not to give in, but to make those choices which,
taking into account what is realistically attainable,
will lead to the re-establishment of a just
order in the defence and promotion of the value
of life. Here it must be noted that it is not
enough to remove unjust laws. The underlying
causes of attacks on life have to be eliminated,
especially by ensuring proper support for families
and motherhood. A family policy must be the
basis and driving force of all social policies.
For this reason there need to be set in place
social and political initiatives capable of
guaranteeing conditions of true freedom of choice
in matters of parenthood. It is also necessary
to rethink labour, urban, residential and social
service policies so as to harmonize working
schedules with time available for the family,
so that it becomes effectively possible to take
care of children and the elderly.
91. Today an important part
of policies which favour life is the issue of
population growth. Certainly public authorities
have a responsibility to "intervene to
orient the demography of the population".[114]
But such interventions must always take into
account and respect the primary and inalienable
responsibility of married couples and families,
and cannot employ methods which fail to respect
the person and fundamental human rights, beginning
with the right to life of every innocent human
being. It is therefore morally unacceptable
to encourage, let alone impose, the use of methods
such as contraception, sterilization and abortion
in order to regulate births. The ways of solving
the population problem are quite different.
Governments and the various international agencies
must above all strive to create economic, social,
public health and cultural conditions which
will enable married couples to make their choices
about procreation in full freedom and with genuine
responsibility. They must then make efforts
to ensure "greater opportunities and a
fairer distribution of wealth so that everyone
can share equitably in the goods of creation.
Solutions must be sought on the global level
by establishing a true economy of communion
and sharing of goods, in both the national and
international order".[115] This is the
only way to respect the dignity of persons and
families, as well as the authentic cultural
patrimony of peoples.
Service of the Gospel of life is thus an immense
and complex task. This service increasingly
appears as a valuable and fruitful area for
positive cooperation with our brothers and sisters
of other Churches and ecclesial communities,
in accordance with the practical ecumenism which
the Second Vatican Council authoritatively encouraged.[116]
It also appears as a providential area for dialogue
and joint efforts with the followers of other
religions and with all people of good will.
No single person or group has a monopoly on
the defence and promotion of life. These are
everyone's task and responsibility. On the eve
of the Third Millennium, the challenge facing
us is an arduous one: only the concerted efforts
of all those who believe in the value of life
can prevent a setback of unforeseeable consequences
for civilization.
"Your children will be like olive shoots
around your table" (Ps 128:3): the family
as the "sanctuary of life"
92. Within the "people
of life and the people for life", the family
has a decisive responsibility. This responsibility
flows from its very nature as a community of
life and love, founded upon marriage, and from
its mission to "guard, reveal and communicate
love".[117] Here it is a matter of God's
own love, of which parents are co-workers and
as it were interpreters when they transmit life
and raise it according to his fatherly plan.[118]
This is the love that becomes selflessness,
receptiveness and gift.
Within the family each member is accepted,
respected and honoured precisely because he
or she is a person; and if any family member
is in greater need, the care which he or she
receives is all the more intense and attentive.
The family has a special role to play throughout
the life of its members, from birth to death.
It is truly "the sanctuary of life: the
place in which life--the gift of God--can be
properly welcomed and protected against the
many attacks to which it is exposed, and can
develop in accordance with what constitutes
authentic human growth".[119] Consequently
the role of the family in building a culture
of life is decisive and irreplaceable.
As the domestic church, the family is summoned
to proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel
of life. This is a responsibility which first
concerns married couples, called to be givers
of life, on the basis of an ever greater awareness
of the meaning of procreation as a unique event
which clearly reveals that human life is a gift
received in order then to be given as a gift.
In giving origin to a new life, parents recognize
that the child, "as the fruit of their
mutual gift of love, is, in turn, a gift for
both of them, a gift which flows from them".[120]
It is above all in raising children that the
family fulfils its mission to proclaim the Gospel
of life. By word and example, in the daily round
of relations and choices, and through concrete
actions and signs, parents lead their children
to authentic freedom, actualized in the sincere
gift of self, and they cultivate in them respect
for others, a sense of justice, cordial openness,
dialogue, generous service, solidarity and all
the other values which help people to live life
as a gift. In raising children Christian parents
must be concerned about their children's faith
and help them to fulfil the vocation God has
given them. The parents' mission as educators
also includes teaching and giving their children
an example of the true meaning of suffering
and death. They will be able to do this if they
are sensitive to all kinds of suffering around
them and, even more, if they succeed in fostering
attitudes of closeness, assistance and sharing
towards sick or elderly members of the family.
93. The family celebrates
the Gospel of life through daily prayer, both
individual prayer and family prayer. The family
prays in order to glorify and give thanks to
God for the gift of life, and implores his light
and strength in order to face times of difficulty
and suffering without losing hope. But the celebration
which gives meaning to every other form of prayer
and worship is found in the family's actual
daily life together, if it is a life of love
and self-giving.
This celebration thus becomes a service to
the Gospel of life, expressed through solidarity
as experienced within and around the family
in the form of concerned, attentive and loving
care shown in the humble, ordinary events of
each day. A particularly significant expression
of solidarity between families is a willingness
to adopt or take in children abandoned by their
parents or in situations of serious hardship.
True parental love is ready to go beyond the
bonds of flesh and blood in order to accept
children from other families, offering them
whatever is necessary for their well-being and
full development. Among the various forms of
adoption, consideration should be given to adoption-at-a-distance,
preferable in cases where the only reason for
giving up the child is the extreme poverty of
the child's family. Through this type of adoption,
parents are given the help needed to support
and raise their children, without their being
uprooted from their natural environment.
As "a firm and persevering determination
to commit oneself to the common good",[121]
solidarity also needs to be practised through
participation in social and political life.
Serving the Gospel of life thus means that the
family, particularly through its membership
of family associations, works to ensure that
the laws and institutions of the State in no
way violate the right to life, from conception
to natural death, but rather protect and promote
it.
94. Special attention must
be given to the elderly. While in some cultures
older people remain a part of the family with
an important and active role, in others the
elderly are regarded as a useless burden and
are left to themselves. Here the temptation
to resort to euthanasia can more easily arise.
Neglect of the elderly or their outright rejection
are intolerable. Their presence in the family,
or at least their closeness to the family in
cases where limited living space or other reasons
make this impossible, is of fundamental importance
in creating a climate of mutual interaction
and enriching communication between the different
age-groups. It is therefore important to preserve,
or to re-establish where it has been lost, a
sort of "covenant" between generations.
In this way parents, in their later years, can
receive from their children the acceptance and
solidarity which they themselves gave to their
children when they brought them into the world.
This is required by obedience to the divine
commandment to honour one's father and mother
(cf. Ex 20:12; Lev 19:3). But there is more.
The elderly are not only to be considered the
object of our concern, closeness and service.
They themselves have a valuable contribution
to make to the Gospel of life. Thanks to the
rich treasury of experiences they have acquired
through the years, the elderly can and must
be sources of wisdom and witnesses of hope and
love.
Although it is true that "the future of
humanity passes by way of the family",[122]
it must be admitted that modern social, economic
and cultural conditions make the family's task
of serving life more difficult and demanding.
In order to fulfil its vocation as the "sanctuary
of life", as the cell of a society which
loves and welcomes life, the family urgently
needs to be helped and supported. Communities
and States must guarantee all the support, including
economic support, which families need in order
to meet their problems in a truly human way.
For her part, the Church must untiringly promote
a plan of pastoral care for families, capable
of making every family rediscover and live with
joy and courage its mission to further the Gospel
of life.
"Walk as children of light" (Eph
5:8): bringing about a transformation of culture
95. "Walk as children
of light... and try to learn what is pleasing
to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful
works of darkness" (Eph 5:8, 10-11). In
our present social context, marked by a dramatic
struggle between the "culture of life"
and the "culture of death", there
is need to develop a deep critical sense, capable
of discerning true values and authentic needs.
What is urgently called for is a general mobilization
of consciences and a united ethical effort to
activate a great campaign in support of life.
All together, we must build a new culture of
life: new, because it will be able to confront
and solve today's unprecedented problems affecting
human life; new, because it will be adopted
with deeper and more dynamic conviction by all
Christians; new, because it will be capable
of bringing about a serious and courageous cultural
dialogue among all parties. While the urgent
need for such a cultural transformation is linked
to the present historical situation, it is also
rooted in the Church's mission of evangelization.
The purpose of the Gospel, in fact, is "to
transform humanity from within and to make it
new".[123] Like the yeast which leavens
the whole measure of dough (cf. Mt 13:33), the
Gospel is meant to permeate all cultures and
give them life from within,[124] so that they
may express the full truth about the human person
and about human life.
We need to begin with the renewal of a culture
of life within Christian communities themselves.
Too often it happens that believers, even those
who take an active part in the life of the Church,
end up by separating their Christian faith from
its ethical requirements concerning life, and
thus fall into moral subjectivism and certain
objectionable ways of acting. With great openness
and courage, we need to question how widespread
is the culture of life today among individual
Christians, families, groups and communities
in our Dioceses. With equal clarity and determination
we must identify the steps we are called to
take in order to serve life in all its truth.
At the same time, we need to promote a serious
and in-depth exchange about basic issues of
human life with everyone, including non-believers,
in intellectual circles, in the various professional
spheres and at the level of people's everyday
life.
96. The first and fundamental
step towards this cultural transformation consists
in forming consciences with regard to the incomparable
and inviolable worth of every human life. It
is of the greatest importance to re-establish
the essential connection between life and freedom.
These are inseparable goods: where one is violated,
the other also ends up being violated. There
is no true freedom where life is not welcomed
and loved; and there is no fullness of life
except in freedom. Both realities have something
inherent and specific which links them inextricably:
the vocation to love. Love, as a sincere gift
of self,[125] is what gives the life and freedom
of the person their truest meaning.
No less critical in the formation of conscience
is the recovery of the necessary link between
freedom and truth. As I have frequently stated,
when freedom is detached from objective truth
it becomes impossible to establish personal
rights on a firm rational basis; and the ground
is laid for society to be at the mercy of the
unrestrained will of individuals or the oppressive
totalitarianism of public authority.[126]
It is therefore essential that man should acknowledge
his inherent condition as a creature to whom
God has granted being and life as a gift and
a duty. Only by admitting his innate dependence
can man live and use his freedom to the full,
and at the same time respect the life and freedom
of every other person. Here especially one sees
that "at the heart of every culture lies
the attitude man takes to the greatest mystery:
the mystery of God".[127] Where God is
denied and people live as though he did not
exist, or his commandments are not taken into
account, the dignity of the human person and
the inviolability of human life also end up
being rejected or compromised.
97. Closely connected with
the formation of conscience is the work of education,
which helps individuals to be ever more human,
leads them ever more fully to the truth, instils
in them growing respect for life, and trains
them in right interpersonal relationships.
In particular, there is a need for education
about the value of life from its very origins.
It is an illusion to think that we can build
a true culture of human life if we do not help
the young to accept and experience sexuality
and love and the whole of life according to
their true meaning and in their close interconnection.
Sexuality, which enriches the whole person,
"manifests its inmost meaning in leading
the person to the gift of self in love".[128]
The trivialization of sexuality is among the
principal factors which have led to contempt
for new life. Only a true love is able to protect
life. There can be no avoiding the duty to offer,
especially to adolescents and young adults,
an authentic education in sexuality and in love,
an education which involves training in chastity
as a virtue which fosters personal maturity
and makes one capable of respecting the "spousal"
meaning of the body.
The work of educating in the service of life
involves the training of married couples in
responsible procreation. In its true meaning,
responsible procreation requires couples to
be obedient to the Lord's call and to act as
faithful interpreters of his plan. This happens
when the family is generously open to new lives,
and when couples maintain an attitude of openness
and service to life, even if, for serious reasons
and in respect for the moral law, they choose
to avoid a new birth for the time being or indefinitely.
The moral law obliges them in every case to
control the impulse of instinct and passion,
and to respect the biological laws inscribed
in their person. It is precisely this respect
which makes legitimate, at the service of responsible
procreation, the use of natural methods of regulating
fertility. From the scientific point of view,
these methods are becoming more and more accurate
and make it possible in practice to make choices
in harmony with moral values. An honest appraisal
of their effectiveness should dispel certain
prejudices which are still widely held, and
should convince married couples, as well as
health-care and social workers, of the importance
of proper training in this area. The Church
is grateful to those who, with personal sacrifice
and often unacknowledged dedication, devote
themselves to the study and spread of these
methods, as well to the promotion of education
in the moral values which they presuppose.
The work of education cannot avoid a consideration
of suffering and death. These are a part of
human existence, and it is futile, not to say
misleading, to try to hide them or ignore them.
On the contrary, people must be helped to understand
their profound mystery in all its harsh reality.
Even pain and suffering have meaning and value
when they are experienced in close connection
with love received and given. In this regard,
I have called for the yearly celebration of
the World Day of the Sick, emphasizing "the
salvific nature of the offering up of suffering
which, experienced in communion with Christ,
belongs to the very essence of the Redemption".[129]
Death itself is anything but an event without
hope. It is the door which opens wide on eternity
and, for those who live in Christ, an experience
of participation in the mystery of his Death
and Resurrection.
98. In a word, we can say
that the cultural change which we are calling
for demands from everyone the courage to adopt
a new life-style, consisting in making practical
choices--at the personal, family, social and
international level--on the basis of a correct
scale of values: the primacy of being over having,[130]
of the person over things.[131] This renewed
life-style involves a passing from indifference
to concern for others, from rejection to acceptance
of them. Other people are not rivals from whom
we must defend ourselves, but brothers and sisters
to be supported. They are to be loved for their
own sakes, and they enrich us by their very
presence.
In this mobilization for a new culture of life
no one must feel excluded: everyone has an important
role to play. Together with the family, teachers
and educators have a particularly valuable contribution
to make. Much will depend on them if young people,
trained in true freedom, are to be able to preserve
for themselves and make known to others new,
authentic ideals of life, and if they are to
grow in respect for and service to every other
person, in the family and in society.
Intellectuals can also do much to build a new
culture of human life. A special task falls
to Catholic intellectuals, who are called to
be present and active in the leading centres
where culture is formed, in schools and universities,
in places of scientific and technological research,
of artistic creativity and of the study of man.
Allowing their talents and activity to be nourished
by the living force of the Gospel, they ought
to place themselves at the service of a new
culture of life by offering serious and well
documented contributions, capable of commanding
general respect and interest by reason of their
merit. It was precisely for this purpose that
I established the Pontifical Academy for Life,
assigning it the task of "studying and
providing information and training about the
principal problems of law and biomedicine pertaining
to the promotion of life, especially in the
direct relationship they have with Christian
morality and the directives of the Church's
Magisterium".[132] A specific contribution
will also have to come from Universities, particularly
from Catholic Universities, and from Centres,
Institutes and Committees of Bioethics.
An important and serious responsibility belongs
to those involved in the mass media, who are
called to ensure that the messages which they
so effectively transmit will support the culture
of life. They need to present noble models of
life and make room for instances of people's
positive and sometimes heroic love for others.
With great respect they should also present
the positive values of sexuality and human love,
and not insist on what defiles and cheapens
human dignity. In their interpretation of things,
they should refrain from emphasizing anything
that suggests or fosters feelings or attitudes
of indifference, contempt or rejection in relation
to life. With scrupulous concern for factual
truth, they are called to combine freedom of
information with respect for every person and
a profound sense of humanity.
99. In transforming culture
so that it supports life, women occupy a place,
in thought and action, which is unique and decisive.
It depends on them to promote a "new feminism"
which rejects the temptation of imitating models
of "male domination", in order to
acknowledge and affirm the true genius of women
in every aspect of the life of society, and
overcome all discrimination, violence and exploitation.
Making my own the words of the concluding message
of the Second Vatican Council, I address to
women this urgent appeal: "Reconcile people
with life".[133] You are called to bear
witness to the meaning of genuine love, of that
gift of self and of that acceptance of others
which are present in a special way in the relationship
of husband and wife, but which ought also to
be at the heart of every other interpersonal
relationship. The experience of motherhood makes
you acutely aware of the other person and, at
the same time, confers on you a particular task:
"Motherhood involves a special communion
with the mystery of life, as it develops in
the woman's womb . . . This unique contact with
the new human being developing within her gives
rise to an attitude towards human beings not
only towards her own child, but every human
being, which profoundly marks the woman's personality".[134]
A mother welcomes and carries in herself another
human being, enabling it to grow inside her,
giving it room, respecting it in its otherness.
Women first learn and then teach others that
human relations are authentic if they are open
to accepting the other person: a person who
is recognized and loved because of the dignity
which comes from being a person and not from
other considerations, such as usefulness, strength,
intelligence, beauty or health. This is the
fundamental contribution which the Church and
humanity expect from women. And it is the indispensable
prerequisite for an authentic cultural change.
I would now like to say a special word to women
who have had an abortion. The Church is aware
of the many factors which may have influenced
your decision, and she does not doubt that in
many cases it was a painful and even shattering
decision. The wound in your heart may not yet
have healed. Certainly what happened was and
remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to
discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather
to understand what happened and face it honestly.
If you have not already done so, give yourselves
over with humility and trust to repentance.
The Father of mercies is ready to give you his
forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of
Reconciliation. You will come to understand
that nothing is definitively lost and you will
also be able to ask forgiveness from your child,
who is now living in the Lord. With the friendly
and expert help and advice of other people,
and as a result of your own painful experience,
you can be among the most eloquent defenders
of everyone's right to life. Through your commitment
to life, whether by accepting the birth of other
children or by welcoming and caring for those
most in need of someone to be close to them,
you will become promoters of a new way of looking
at human life.
100. In this great endeavour
to create a new culture of life we are inspired
and sustained by the confidence that comes from
knowing that the Gospel of life, like the Kingdom
of God itself, is growing and producing abundant
fruit (cf. Mk 4:26-29). There is certainly an
enormous disparity between the powerful resources
available to the forces promoting the "culture
of death" and the means at the disposal
of those working for a "culture of life
and love". But we know that we can rely
on the help of God, for whom nothing is impossible
(cf. Mt 19:26).
Filled with this certainty, and moved by profound
concern for the destiny of every man and woman,
I repeat what I said to those families who carry
out their challenging mission amid so many difficulties:[135]
a great prayer for life is urgently needed,
a prayer which will rise up throughout the world.
Through special initiatives and in daily prayer,
may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator
and lover of life, from every Christian community,
from every group and association, from every
family and from the heart of every believer.
Jesus himself has shown us by his own example
that prayer and fasting are the first and most
effective weapons against the forces of evil
(cf. Mt 4:1-11). As he taught his disciples,
some demons cannot be driven out except in this
way (cf. Mk 9:29). Let us therefore discover
anew the humility and the courage to pray and
fast so that power from on high will break down
the walls of lies and deceit: the walls which
conceal from the sight of so many of our brothers
and sisters the evil of practices and laws which
are hostile to life. May this same power turn
their hearts to resolutions and goals inspired
by the civilization of life and love.
"We are writing this that our joy may
be complete" (1 Jn 1:4): the Gospel of
life is for the whole of human society
101. "We are writing
you this that our joy may be complete"
(1 Jn 1:4). The revelation of the Gospel of
life is given to us as a good to be shared with
all people: so that all men and women may have
fellowship with us and with the Trinity (cf.
1 Jn 1:3). Our own joy would not be complete
if we failed to share this Gospel with others
but kept it only for ourselves.
The Gospel of life is not for believers alone:
it is for everyone. The issue of life and its
defence and promotion is not a concern of Christians
alone. Although faith provides special light
and strength, this question arises in every
human conscience which seeks the truth and which
cares about the future of humanity. Life certainly
has a sacred and religious value, but in no
way is that value a concern only of believers.
The value at stake is one which every human
being can grasp by the light of reason; thus
it necessarily concerns everyone.
Consequently, all that we do as the "people
of life and for life" should be interpreted
correctly and welcomed with favour. When the
Church declares that unconditional respect for
the right to life of every innocent person--from
conception to natural death--is one of the pillars
on which every civil society stands, she "wants
simply to promote a human State. A State which
recognizes the defence of the fundamental rights
of the human person, especially of the weakest,
as its primary duty".[136]
The Gospel of life is for the whole of human
society. To be actively pro-life is to contribute
to the renewal of society through the promotion
of the common good. It is impossible to further
the common good without acknowledging and defending
the right to life, upon which all the other
inalienable rights of individuals are founded
and from which they develop. A society lacks
solid foundations when, on the one hand, it
asserts values such as the dignity of the person,
justice and peace, but then, on the other hand,
radically acts to the contrary by allowing or
tolerating a variety of ways in which human
life is devalued and violated, especially where
it is weak or marginalized. Only respect for
life can be the foundation and guarantee of
the most precious and essential goods of society,
such as democracy and peace.
There can be no true democracy without a recognition
of every person's dignity and without respect
for his or her rights.
Nor can there be true peace unless life is
defended and promoted. As Paul VI pointed out:
"Every crime against life is an attack
on peace, especially if it strikes at the moral
conduct of people... But where human rights
are truly professed and publicly recognized
and defended, peace becomes the joyful and operative
climate of life in society".[137]
The "people of life" rejoices in
being able to share its commitment with so many
others. Thus may the "people for life"
constantly grow in number and may a new culture
of love and solidarity develop for the true
good of the whole of human society.
CONCLUSION
102. At the end of this Encyclical,
we naturally look again to the Lord Jesus, "the
Child born for us" (cf. Is 9:6), that in
him we may contemplate "the Life"
which "was made manifest" (l Jn 1:2).
In the mystery of Christ's Birth the encounter
of God with man takes place and the earthly
journey of the Son of God begins, a journey
which will culminate in the gift of his life
on the Cross. By his death Christ will conquer
death and become for all humanity the source
of new life.
The one who accepted "Life" in the
name of all and for the sake of all was Mary,
the Virgin Mother; she is thus most closely
and personally associated with the Gospel of
life. Mary's consent at the Annunciation and
her motherhood stand at the very beginning of
the mystery of life which Christ came to bestow
on humanity (cf. Jn 10:10). Through her acceptance
and loving care for the life of the Incarnate
Word, human life has been rescued from condemnation
to final and eternal death.
For this reason, Mary, "like the Church
of which she is the type, is a mother of all
who are reborn to life. She is in fact the mother
of the Life by which everyone lives, and when
she brought it forth from herself she in some
way brought to rebirth all those who were to
live by that Life".[138]
As the Church contemplates Mary's motherhood,
she discovers the meaning of her own motherhood
and the way in which she is called to express
it. At the same time, the Church's experience
of motherhood leads to a most profound understanding
of Mary's experience as the incomparable model
of how life should be welcomed and cared for.
"A great portent appeared in heaven, a
woman clothed with the sun" (Rev 12:1):
the motherhood of Mary and of the Church
103. The mutual relationship
between the mystery of the Church and Mary appears
clearly in the "great portent" described
in the Book of Revelation: "A great portent
appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the
sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her
head a crown of twelve stars" (12:1). In
this sign the Church recognizes an image of
her own mystery: present in history, she knows
that she transcends history, inasmuch as she
constitutes on earth the "seed and beginning"
of the Kingdom of God.[139] The Church sees
this mystery fulfilled in complete and exemplary
fashion in Mary. She is the woman of glory in
whom God's plan could be carried out with supreme
perfection.
The "woman clothed with the sun"--the
Book of Revelation tells us--"was with
child" (12:2). The Church is fully aware
that she bears within herself the Saviour of
the world, Christ the Lord. She is aware that
she is called to offer Christ to the world,
giving men and women new birth into God's own
life. But the Church cannot forget that her
mission was made possible by the motherhood
of Mary, who conceived and bore the One who
is "God from God", "true God
from true God". Mary is truly the Mother
of God, the Theotokos, in whose motherhood the
vocation to motherhood bestowed by God on every
woman is raised to its highest level. Thus Mary
becomes the model of the Church, called to be
the "new Eve", the mother of believers,
the mother of the "living" (cf. Gen
3:20).
The Church's spiritual motherhood is only achieved--the
Church knows this too--through the pangs and
"the labour" of childbirth (cf. Rev
12:2), that is to say, in constant tension with
the forces of evil which still roam the world
and affect human hearts, offering resistance
to Christ: "In him was life, and the life
was the light of men. The light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness has not overcome
it" (Jn 1:4-5).
Like the Church, Mary too had to live her motherhood
amid suffering: "This child is set... for
a sign that is spoken against--and a sword will
pierce through your own soul also--that thoughts
out of many hearts may be revealed" (Lk
2:34-35). The words which Simeon addresses to
Mary at the very beginning of the Saviour's
earthly life sum up and prefigure the rejection
of Jesus, and with him of Mary, a rejection
which will reach its culmination on Calvary.
"Standing by the cross of Jesus" (Jn
19:25), Mary shares in the gift which the Son
makes of himself: she offers Jesus, gives him
over, and begets him to the end for our sake.
The "yes" spoken on the day of the
Annunciation reaches full maturity on the day
of the Cross, when the time comes for Mary to
receive and beget as her children all those
who become disciples, pouring out upon them
the saving love of her Son: "When Jesus
saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved
standing near, he said to his mother, 'Woman,
behold, your son!"' (Jn 19:26).
"And the dragon stood before the woman
... that he might devour her child when she
brought it forth" (Rev 12:4): life menaced
by the forces of evil
104. In the Book of Revelation,
the "great portent" of the "woman"
(12:1) is accompanied by "another portent
which appeared in heaven": "a great
red dragon" (Rev 12:3), which represents
Satan, the personal power of evil, as well as
all the powers of evil at work in history and
opposing the Church's mission.
Here too Mary sheds light on the Community
of Believers. The hostility of the powers of
evil is, in fact, an insidious opposition which,
before affecting the disciples of Jesus, is
directed against his mother. To save the life
of her Son from those who fear him as a dangerous
threat, Mary has to flee with Joseph and the
Child into Egypt (cf. Mt 2:13-15).
Mary thus helps the Church to realize that
life is always at the centre of a great struggle
between good and evil, between light and darkness.
The dragon wishes to devour "the child
brought forth" (cf. Rev 12:4), a figure
of Christ, whom Mary brought forth "in
the fullness of time" (Gal 4:4) and whom
the Church must unceasingly offer to people
in every age. But in a way that child is also
a figure of every person, every child, especially
every helpless baby whose life is threatened,
because--as the Council reminds us--"by
his Incarnation the Son of God has united himself
in some fashion with every person".[140]
It is precisely in the "flesh" of
every person that Christ continues to reveal
himself and to enter into fellowship with us,
so that rejection of human life, in whatever
form that rejection takes, is really a rejection
of Christ. This is the fascinating but also
demanding truth which Christ reveals to us and
which his Church continues untiringly to proclaim:
"Whoever receives one such child in my
name receives me" (Mt 18:5); "Truly,
I say to you, as you did it to one of the least
of these my brethren, you did it to me"
(Mt 25:40).
"Death shall be no more" (Rev 21:4):
the splendour of the Resurrection
105. The angel's Annunciation
to Mary is framed by these reassuring words:
"Do not be afraid, Mary" and "with
God nothing will be impossible" (Lk 1:30,
37). The whole of the Virgin Mother's life is
in fact pervaded by the certainty that God is
near to her and that he accompanies her with
his providential care. The same is true of the
Church, which finds "a place prepared by
God" (Rev 12:6) in the desert, the place
of trial but also of the manifestation of God's
love for his people (cf. Hos 2:16). Mary is
a living word of comfort for the Church in her
struggle against death. Showing us the Son,
the Church assures us that in him the forces
of death have already been defeated: "Death
with life contended: combat strangely ended!
Life's own Champion, slain, yet lives to reign".[141]
The Lamb who was slain is alive, bearing the
marks of his Passion in the splendour of the
Resurrection. He alone is master of all the
events of history: he opens its "seals"
(cf. Rev 5:1-10) and proclaims, in time and
beyond, the power of life over death. In the
"new Jerusalem", that new world towards
which human history is travelling, "death
shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning
nor crying nor pain any more, for the former
things have passed away" (Rev 21:4). And
as we, the pilgrim people, the people of life
and for life, make our way in confidence towards
"a new heaven and a new earth" (Rev
21:1), we look to her who is for us "a
sign of sure hope and solace".[142]
O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother
of the living, to you dowe entrust the cause
of life: Look down, O Mother, upon the vast
numbers of babies not allowed to be born, of
the poor whose lives are made difficult, of
men and women who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference
or out of misguided mercy. Grant that all who
believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel
of life with honesty and love to the people
of our time. Obtain for them the grace to accept
that Gospel as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating
it with gratitude throughout their lives and
the courage to bear witness to it resolutely,
in order to build, together with all people
of good will, the civilization of truth and
love, to the praise and glory of God, the Creator
