The Vatican has praised a British bishop for a report in which he blamed legal abortion for a shocking rise in violent crime.Patrick O’Donoghue, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Lancaster, had said that casual recourse to abortion had cheapened the value of human life in the eyes of the public over the last four decades.
He was convinced that the 1967 Abortion Act was now a major cause of widespread violence among young people today, he said in the report 'Fit for Mission? Church'.
The report was published at the end of a summer which saw dozens of young people stabbed to death in casual and often random acts of violence.
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the department headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI – today thanked the bishop for his analysis.
Archbishop Luis Ladaria, the congregation secretary, told Bishop O’Donoghue in a letter that his document 'courageously outlines the range of challenges facing this generation in Europe, none of which is greater than the challenge posed by the ‘dimming of hope’ and weariness that is so widespread today'.
'You and your collaborators are to be congratulated for alerting the faithful to the dangers of hedonism and secularism,' said Archbishop Ladaria.
'It is to be hoped that not only the faithful of your own diocese but also Catholics throughout Britain will find hope and encouragement in your document.'
In the report, Bishop O’Donoghue, who will retire next May when he reaches the age of 75, lamented the frequency of 'young people killing strangers in the street, killing fathers defending their property, killing people with learning difficulties, killing other young people who are different to them'.
He said: 'For 41 years we’ve lived in a state-sponsored culture of death that has killed five million children, and we’re now surprised that some of the surviving children have turned out violent with no regard for the sanctity of life?,' he said.
'How many children know that their mothers have had an abortion?
'What effect will it have on them knowing that they have been deprived of a brother or sister through abortion?
'If a society holds human life so cheaply is it any surprise that young people will also hold life cheaply and engage in violence?'
He said that if the State is seen sponsoring 'crimes against life is it any wonder that criminality in general thrives, and seeks to take advantage of the coarsening and darkening of conscience?'
Formerly an aide to Cardinal Basil Hume, in recent years Bishop O’Donoghue has become progressively outspoken, an attribute which has created tensions with his fellow bishops.
Earlier this year he was summoned to explain himself before a committee of MPs after he issued a document on education in which he banned contraceptive-based sex education in Catholic schools in his diocese, which covers northern Lancashire and Cumbria, and ordered crucifixes to be placed in every classroom.
The bishops’ secretariat distanced itself from him but he has refused to upbraided by its lack of support.
In 'Fit for Mission? Church' he directly criticised his fellow bishops for issuing 'flat and safe' statements on such controversial matters as gay adoption instead of offering strong leadership to the country’s 4.3 million Catholics.
He said: 'The presence of confident, courageous and prophetic bishops is vital for the well-being of the Church at this time of increasingly aggressive secularism.'+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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(Source: DMUK)