Top Vatican Cardinal: Catholic Church Supports a “Total Rejection of Abortion”

International   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Apr 6, 2021   |   10:39AM   |   The Vatican

Christians have been committed to a “total reject of abortion” since the church began, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said in an interview Sunday.

Speaking with the Spanish Catholic radio network COPE, Parolin mourned the expansion of abortion and euthanasia in Europe and North America, Breitbart reports. He said these anti-life actions represent a loss of both faith and reason in society.

“I am very sorry for the loss of faith in our Europe, in our culture, in our countries, and these anthropological changes that are taking place, losing the identity of the human person,” Parolin said.

He said Pope Francis often emphasizes that the destruction of innocent life to abortion or euthanasia is a human rights issue, not just a religious one.

“The pope says it many times and it has made a deep impression on me. He says for example: the issue of abortion is not a religious issue,” the cardinal said. “It is certainly also for us Christians from the beginning, from the earliest Church documents there is a total rejection of abortion but it is an argument from reason.”

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Parolin said he, Pope Francis and others believe the “fundamental problem is reason, not faith,” according to the Catholic News Agency.

“It seems to me that the situation we are experiencing can be compared with the first centuries of the Church, when the Apostles and the first disciples arrived in a society that did not have Christian values, but through their testimony of the first communities managed to change the mentality and introduce the values of the Gospel in the society of that time. I think this is the way we still have to do today,” he said.

Whether by reason or faith or both, most people recognize that human life is valuable, and the killing of innocent human beings in abortions or euthanasia is wrong. Both are discriminatory practices that treat some human beings as less valuable than others by destroying their lives — a permanent action that can never be undone.

For Christians, abortion and euthanasia have an even graver significance because they not only kill an innocent human being but they also destroy a unique person created in the image of God. The Bible recognizes the value of unborn babies and condemns murder. It tells that one of the things God hates the most is the shedding of innocent blood.

While Christians lead the fight against abortion, it remains a pervasive evil. Every year across the world, about 42 million unborn babies are aborted.