A high-ranking Vatican official stunned Catholics during a recent television interview by inadvertently confirming the Catholic Church’s retreat from one of its fundamental moral positions — a retreat FrontPage Magazine explored more than a year ago.
The official in question said on Italy’s national network Aug. 26 that the church had no interest in opposing that nation’s law allowing abortion. Enacted in 1978, Law 194 legalizes abortions in the first trimester and permits them afterward only if the mother’s life is in danger or if the fetus displays “serious abnormalities or malformations,” the law states.
That official even had the audacity to say that Law 194 represented “a pillar of our social life.” When pressed whether the church would view the law as up for debate, the official replied, “No, absolutely not.”
Astonishingly, the Vatican official who made those remarks was Cardinal Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, which Pope John Paul II founded specifically to oppose abortion.
Tommaso Scandroglio, reporter for the Catholic newspaper La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, perfectly described the impact: “It is as if the president of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League is declaring himself in favor of the Holocaust.”
Paglia’s remarks reflect Pope Francis’ choice to abandon Catholicism’s historic opposition to abortion in all but name for the sake of his globalist agenda of environmental sustainability and economic equity. FrontPage Magazine discussed that issue in “Suffer the Little Children” in June 2021.
Two months before Paglia’s television appearance, his academy issued a feeble official response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. That response provided the basis for an editorial in the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. It also expresses Francis’ globalist worldview.
“The protection and defense of human life is not an issue that can remain confined to the exercise of individual rights but instead is a matter of broad social significance,” the response read. “After 50 years, it is important to reopen a non-ideological debate on the place that the protection of life has in a civil society to ask ourselves what kind of coexistence and society we want to build.
“It is a question of developing political choices that promote conditions of existence in favor of life without falling into a priori ideological positions. This also means ensuring adequate sexual education, guaranteeing health care accessible to all and preparing legislative measures to protect the family and motherhood, overcoming existing inequalities… (Emphasis added)”
Vatican News, the official news portal, used another editorial to examine abortion in the context of poverty and race.
“(S)trikingly, the maternal mortality rate for black women in 2020 was 55.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, 2.9 times the rate for white women,” the editorial stated. “According to one statistic in the United States, about 75 per cent of women who have abortions live in poverty or have low wages.”
Such benign rhetoric obscures the fecklessness and raw neglect FrontPage Magazine exposed last year.
In May 2021, the Vatican’s leading theological authority after the pope discouraged American bishops from withholding Communion from Catholic politicians who support abortion. In issuing that letter, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, contradicted both his own church’s catechism and canon law.
The Catholic catechism describes abortion a “moral evil,” quotes a previous document from Ladaria’s office in calling abortion and infanticide “abominable crimes,” and demands excommunication for anyone involved in “formal cooperation.” Catholic canon law also states that Catholics “persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion…without previous sacramental confession.”
Yet none of those injunctions prevented Ladaria from writing the following:
“Any statement … regarding Catholic political leaders would best be framed within the broad context of worthiness for the reception of Holy Communion on the part of all the faithful … reflecting their obligation to conform their lives to the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ as they prepare to receive the sacrament. … It would be misleading if such a statement were to give the impression that abortion and euthanasia alone constitute the only grave matters of Catholic moral and social teaching that demand the fullest level of accountability on the part of Catholics.”
Ladaria even appeared to break precedent in calling Catholics who support abortion “pro-choice.”
Two events surrounding Ladaria’s letter demonstrate how irrelevant abortion is to Pope Francis.
One day before Ladaria issued his instructions, the Vatican began a three-day conference on health care that not only refused to address abortion. It featured three prominent speakers who either support or tolerate abortion: Chelsea Clinton, Dr. Francis Collins and Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel. Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health, supports using fetal tissue in research. Bancel’s firm used aborted fetal cells to create the mRNA protein in its COVID-19 vaccines.
The Vatican designed that conference to promote Francis’ globalist worldview. Speakers included Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, known for his “initiatives to create a sustainable, low-carbon future for all” who discussed “how businesses can drive sustainable financial performance while equitably serving the needs of all stakeholders.”
One week after Ladaria’s letter, the Vatican staged another conference, “Dreaming of a Better Restart,” featuring two more abortion proponents. Columbia economist Jeffrey Sachs spoke about “Financial and Tax Solidarity.” John Kerry, climate envoy for Joe Biden, the virtual president, delivered a keynote address on “Integral Ecological Sustainability.”
Sachs, who wrote the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, serves as a papal advisor despite believing abortion must be used to control population growth worldwide.
Even before Ladaria’s letter, American bishops knew Francis’ wishes. One is San Diego’s Robert McElroy. A month before California’s 2020 primary, McElroy issued voting guidelines in which he insisted that Francis’ positions on the environment and open borders mattered more than opposition to abortion and contraception.
Though McElroy conceded abortion was “intrinsically evil,” he criticized the idea that “candidates who seek laws opposing intrinsically evil actions automatically have a primary claim to political support in the Catholic conscience,” he wrote.
“Similarly, contraception is intrinsically evil in Catholic moral theology, while actions which destroy the environment generally are not,” McElroy added. “But it is a far greater moral evil for our country to abandon the Paris Climate Accord than to provide contraceptives in federal health centers.” (Emphasis added)
Francis rewarded McElroy by making him a cardinal, despite McElroy’s refusal to cooperate with legal authorities on cases of clerical sex-abuse.
Yet perhaps the most egregious example of obsequious fecklessness came from another high-ranking official whose remarks four years ago were even more breathtaking than Paglia’s.
“Right now, those who are implementing the Church’s social doctrine the best are the Chinese,” said Cardinal Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Councils of Science and Social Science at the time.
Sorondo praised China’s application of Laudato Si, Francis’ environmentalist encyclical, for “defending the dignity of the person” and “assuming a moral leadership that others have left,” meaning President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on carbon-dioxide emissions.
For Sorondo, the fact that China performs between 10 million and 23 million abortions a year matters not.
But Francis is no oddity. For six decades, the Vatican has embraced materialist humanism and the ensuing demand for global governance, as FrontPage Magazine discussed in “The Roman Globalist Church” and “The Vatican vs. Trump” two years ago.
Pope Benedict XVI crystallized that embrace in his 2009 encyclical, Caritas et Veritate. Francis’ predecessor advocated that the UN govern both international and domestic economics.
“There is a strongly felt need … for a reform of the United Nations … and, likewise, of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can have real teeth,” Benedict wrote. “To manage the global economy … to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world political authority.”
Such an authority, Benedict wrote, must “have the authority to ensure compliance with its decisions from all parties” as it seeks to “establish the common good.”
The resulting “directed” global economy, Benedict wrote, would “open up the unprecedented possibility of large-scale redistribution of wealth on a world-wide scale.” That would include “a worldwide redistribution of energy resources, so that countries lacking those resources can have access to them,” Benedict added.
Benedict’s objectives match the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
On the flimsy altar of utopian fantasy does Pope Francis sacrifice the Catholic Church’s patrimony and credibility, let alone the unborn.
“Ye shall know them by their fruits.”
The fruits of Vatican 2 are rotten. The church has been infiltrated by Marksists, heretics, and sexual deviants..
Archbishop Vigano has often talked about how their is a deep church, similar to the deep state, which has taken control.
This is why the pope persecutes Traditional Catholics, same and the deep state. persecute traditional Americans.
I have a bit of a different take. I would suggest a compromise where abortion becomes MANDATORY from the 54th trimester, with the trigger being the fetal signing of the Democrat party registration card. It’s at that point that there is 100% certainty that the fetus will never reach a state of intelligence and sentience.
I don’t see a downside.
Great resolution
There is no downside to your modest proposal. It’s all good.
I’ll go for that!
For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. Matthew 24:5
The UN us an antichrist institution, and the Pope is small-a antichr I st. He brought an Amazinian idol to the Vatican along with the pagan priestess.
Ezekiel 8.
At some point, a bunch of c l Eric’s will either establish an alternative Catholic fellowship.
Bergoglio I s ever more sounding like the description of the False Prophet of Revelation 13 that advocates the worship of the Antichrist himself.
“Bergoglio I s ever more sounding like the description of the False Prophet of Revelation 13 that advocates the worship of the Antichrist himself.”
Don’t be surprised if that comes true, especially if the Antichrist shares Francis’ eco-globalist agenda.
“Pope Francis abandons the Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion.”
Antipope Francis isn’t the pope. He is a usurper, fraud, and deceiver. The true pope is Pope Gregory XVIII who succeeded Pope Gregory XVII (a.k.a. “Cardinal” Siri).
The Catholic Church will always affirm the right to life of the innocent. It is an unchangeable matter of morality and doctrine.
This means that it is never permissible to directly and intentionally kill an innocent. However, it may be that innocents die in the course of achieving some good. The typical example for this is innocent “human shields” evilly used in war. This is called the principle of double effect.
“Astonishingly, the Vatican official who made those remarks was Cardinal Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, which Pope John Paul II founded specifically to oppose abortion.”
“Cardinal” Vincenzo Paglia isn’t a cardinal. Antipope John Paul II wasn’t a pope.
“The Catholic catechism describes abortion”
The link is not to a Church=approved catechism. Strictly speaking, there is no “Catholic Catechism.” There are approved CATECHISMS. The best – if not perfect – and Church-approved catechism is “The Baltimore Catechism” (http://www.baltimore-catechism.com/)
Disqus Profile access (“Shawn”)
Are you a truly born again Christian?
How is that detail relevant to this discussion?
It was only in 1869 that the Catholic Church (Pius IX) decreed that life begins at conception. Prior to that it was believed that life begins upon quickening. St Thomas, for example, believed ensoulment begins months after conception. The Church is returning to its historic position.
The laws in Italy are in accord with historic beliefs on ensoulment. However, like most countries with Socialized Medicine, specialists are in short supply. It’s difficult to get an abortion in Italy. Many resort to the black market.
Vatican City is an independent country separate from Italy.
This “Holy Roman Poop” is a vicar of Satan on earth
So is this fake Pope who comapaired Trump to King Herod going to repent from this false religion of Enviromentalism?
No. Environmentalism is his de facto religion.
Pope Commie was an old man when he was installed and he’d already been a public Marxist for his entire time in the Catholic Church. His choice of the title Francis, after Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron Saint of the poor, affirmed his Marxism. So there shouldn’t be any surprise that he’s a collectivist and globalist who supports the New Order doctrine of “abortion” (infanticide) on demand for the “common good.”
All of which directly contravenes the Catechisms of the Catholic Church which its leaders are sworn to uphold as holy doctrine.
Ironically, Francis and the Church leadership who support infanticide and collectivism over the individual are damned to Hell by their own doctrine unless they repent those grave sins.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part one, Section Two, Chapter One, Article One, Section 7 – The Fall:
“….there is no repentance for men after death.” Seems pretty straightforward to me and I believe it. There is no repentance, only penance.
As far as the common good goes, the Church is quite specific.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part Three, Section One, Chapter Two, Article 7, The Human Virtues II – The Common Good:
“1912 The common good is always oriented towards the progress of persons: The order of things must be subordinate to the order of persons, and not the other way around.”30 This order is founded on truth, built up in justice, and animated by love.”
Persons, not people. *individuals*
And the Catechisms are quite detailed on the sin of abortion. I’ve included all of them but the very first sentence sums up the Church’s doctrine against abortion, which its current leadership blatantly contravenes, so it isn’t necessary to read them all except out of curiosity.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part Three, Section Two, Chapter Two, Article 5, Respect for Human Life I – Abortion:
“2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.
From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.71
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.72
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.73
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion.
This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.
Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.74
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves.
Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.75
2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense.
The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.
“A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,”76 “by the very commission of the offense,”77 and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.78
The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy.
Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation:
“The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority.
These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin.
Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being’s right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death.”79
“The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law.
When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined….
As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child’s rights.”80
2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.
Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, “if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safe guarding or healing as an individual….
It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence.”81
2275 “One must hold 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 are directed toward its healing the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival.”82
“It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material.”83
“Certain attempts to influence chromosomic or genetic inheritance are not therapeutic but are aimed at producing human beings selected according to sex or other predetermined qualities.
Such manipulations are contrary to the personal dignity of the human being and his integrity and identity”84 which are unique and unrepeatable.”
Matthew 12:37 Catholic Bible: “Your words will be used to judge you–to declare you either innocent or guilty.”
Pope Commie and the Church leadership are Heretics according to their own doctrine.
The Catholic Church doesn’t give a rip about its own doctrine or canon law. All it cares about is money and power.
That’s for sure. Some things never change.
More and more people are straying from the Church and returning to God…. Lenny Bruce.
It is part of the madness in today’s world that the Pope and the Church revere non-human life
(plants and animals) – while now allowing for abortion which approves the killing of human life.
Pope Francis emphasizes over and over that humans are not the stewards of other life forms
which have rights equal to that of humans. Which requires humans to be deferential to the
environment and its non-human occupants at all times – to keep that uppermost in our thoughts.
The Pope even refers to the enviro-community in his encyclical Laudato Si as Mother Nature –
as if it is a real entity which needs to be worshiped. Nothing could emphasize such worship more
than the Vatican being okay with abortion – while it reveres plant and animal life.
Makes one wonder why Globalist Joe Biden recently appointed a woman to officially and
specifically oversee the well-being – of plants and animals. All part of that Globalist Communist
tyrannical mindset and agenda they have planned for us – where humans wind up being lower
than the dirt.
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