The Vatican's top anti-abortion campaigner kicked off the Roman Catholic Church's aggressive campaign against plans to legalize abortion in Mexico Friday.Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo inaugurated an international anti-abortion conference by giving a Mass at the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the most important Catholic shrine in the Americas.
In a prayer to the Virgin of Guadalupe before about 300 people, many carrying flags from other Latin American countries, Lopez Trujillo asked for the strengthening of women 'so they can teach their children moral values' but didn't speak directly against abortion.
The campaign pushes the limit of Mexico's constitutional ban on political activity by religious groups. It is also drawing President Felipe Calderon, a conservative who opposes abortion, into a showdown with leftists spearheading the bills to legalize abortion.
While the church has always been against abortion, the Vatican especially does not want to lose its anti-abortion fight in Mexico, which has the second-largest Catholic population in Latin America.
'In the name of Jesus Christ and his Gospel, we ask, we implore they do not approve an unjust and bloody law that kills the innocent,' said the Rev. Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico City.
At a press conference after Mass, Lopez Trujillo, who made headlines in 2003 for saying condoms do not prevent AIDS, said he was in Mexico to present a book about the Catholic Church's philosophy and not to intervene in the capital's abortion debate.
However, he said there already are too many abortions in the world and that 'we don't have a reason to shred a human being who is a creation of God and who carries the world's hope.'
The conference in Mexico City, sponsored by Mexico's leading anti-abortion group, Pro-Vida, will feature talks by anti-abortion activists, including Dr. John Wilkie, an early leader of the U.S. National Right to Life Committee.
Mexico's Roman Catholic Church is calling on its followers to participate in a massive march Sunday led by Mexico City's own Cardinal Norberto Rivera.
Lawmakers from the main opposition Democratic Revolution Party, who proposed the bills to legalize abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, have asked the church to stay out of the matter.
The debate has drawn international interest, which also could test a Mexican law that bars foreigners from political activism.
In 2000, authorities barred U.S. and Canadian anti-abortion activists from returning to Mexico for five years after the group joined protests in Mexico City's main square.
The bill to legalize abortion is expected to easily pass in Mexico City, a leftist bastion where Democratic Revolution holds the mayorship and the majority of seats in the city legislature.
Democratic Revolution lawmakers have filed a similar bill in the national Senate, but it is expected to face a tough battle there.
Most Latin American countries, including Mexico, allow abortion if the woman's life is in danger or in cases of rape or incest.
In November, Nicaragua passed a law banning abortion in all cases.
Cuba permits abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, as does the United States.
Wealthier Mexican women often travel to the United States for abortions, while thousands of poor women risk drinking potent herbal teas, taking pills or using other risky measures to abort illegally.
'It's very easy to get an illegal abortion,' said Cecilia Garcia, a street seller who hawks cosmetics in the poor city of Ecatepec on the capital's outskirts.
'You can go to the Sonora market (a popular market selling home and witchcraft remedies), look on the Internet for ways, or go to certain doctors who will do it.'
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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