Although low voter turnout foiled Portugal's recent referendum on abortion, the majority "yes" vote reflects a marked change in culture, the country's bishops concede.The Feb. 11 referendum aimed to relax current law in Portugal and to make abortion legal through the 10th week of pregnancy. Almost 60% of those who voted supported the referendum.
The Portuguese episcopal conference say that the voters' response "is a sign of a marked cultural change."
The bishops gathered in an extraordinary assembly in Fatima last Thursday to reflect on the result of the referendum.
After the meeting, they issued a pastoral note. According to the episcopal conference, the referendum manifests "a culture that is not permeated by fundamental ethical values, which should inspire the meaning of laws, such as that of the inviolable character of human life, consecrated, moreover, in our constitution."
Winds of Change
The cultural change has several causes, say the bishops, among which is the "globalized influence of the media in the way of thinking and currents of opinion; the lack of intellectual formation, in that the educational system does not prepare people to ask questions on the meaning of life and the primordial questions of the human being."
The prelates also mention "individualism in the use of liberty and in the search for truth, which influences the concept and exercise of personal conscience; the relativization of values and of principles that concern the life of people and of society."
According to the bishops' conference, "our pastoral mission must confront this phenomenon of cultural change with all the means available to us, because only thus will we help to make these great values continue to be present in the understanding and exercise of liberty." The bishops state that their pastoral objectives will be the same as ever: to help people, to enlighten consciences, to create conditions to avoid recourse to abortion, whether legal or clandestine.
"The change of mentality challenges our evangelizing mission, especially the evangelization of youth, of families and of new social dynamisms," they say. "The whole mission of the Church must be ever more thought out in a new social context. "Creativity and courage are useful in fidelity to the mission of the Church and to the evangelical truths that guide it."
Consciences
The bishops emphasize the need to enlighten consciences. "This illuminating truth of consciences comes from a wise exercise of reason, in the framework of culture … ," the bishops write. "It is the heritage of a community, whose living tradition is source of truth, comprising the individual dimension of liberty and the search for truth."
For Catholics, revealed truth, transmitted by the Church, is an essential element in the illumination of consciences, they add. The bishops recall that legalizing abortion does not make it morally legitimate. "The decision to abort is, in the majority of cases, prey of great loneliness and suffering. A child who at first seems to be a problem often becomes a solution to their lives," the bishops state.
The pastoral note continues: "Many women who abort feel, later, that if they could turn back they would avoid this mistaken act. Let them open up to someone, and reflect, in conversation, on the gravity of their decision.
"The struggle for life, for dignifying every human life, is one of the most noble tasks of civilization. …
The Church will remain faithful to its mission of proclaiming the gospel of life in fullness and denouncing threats against life."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce