Pope Francis blasts both abortion and population control in a new Encyclical on the environment and says human beings can’t truly be concerned about planet Earth if they first do not show a respect and concern for the right to life of the people who live on it.
“When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected,” Pope Francis writes. “Christian thought sees human beings as possessing a particular dignity above other creatures; it thus inculcates esteem for each person and respect for others.”
The leader of the Catholic Church continues: “Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?”
“If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away,” he adds.
The papal encyclical is already drawing praise from pro-life leaders.
Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, told LifeNews: ““Priests for Life welcomes the new encyclical from Pope Francis on the care for the environment. We draw particular attention to these lines from the document, which pertain in a particular way to our specific pro-life mission.”
Ashley McGuire, Senior Fellowof the Catholic Association, added: “In particular, he is challenging us to apply a consistent and integral ecological approach to the world, one that takes into account the essential and intertwined relationship between human beings and our natural environment. It’s particularly refreshing to see him argue that horrors like abortion and experimentation on human embryos are entirely inconsistent with a concern for the earth and its inhabitants.”
Bishop David Kagan of the Diocese of Bismarck also applauded the document.
Environmental stewardship is central to the moral roots of our faith. Care for God’s creation is the responsibility of all human beings as outlined by our Holy Father in his encyclical “On Care for Our Common Home.” Pope Francis is calling for radical change to our “throwaway culture.”
Pope Francis has talked about this throwaway culture before — saying it is responsible for abortion.
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Lamenting the “throwaway culture” the world lives in now, Pope Francis said, “The victims of such a culture are precisely the weakest and most fragile human beings – the unborn, the poorest people, sick elderly people, gravely disabled people… who are in danger of being ‘thrown out,’ expelled from a machine that must be efficient at all costs.”
“This false model of man and society embodies a practical atheism, de facto negating the Word of God that says: ‘Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness,’” he explained.
The Pope said “there is an originary dignity of every man and woman that cannot be suppressed, that cannot be touched by any power or ideology.”
